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I 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY. 
$2.00 net. Postage, 15 cents 

THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. 
$2.00 net. Postage, 15 cents 

THE SPIRIT OF OLD WEST POINT. 
Illustrated. $3.00 net. Postage, 20 cents 

ETNA AND KIRKERSVILLE. A History. 
$1.00 net. Postage, 8 cents 



THE 
SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 



THE SUNSET OF THE 
CONFEDERACY 



BY 

MORRIS SCHAFF 

attthor of " the spirit of old west point,' 
"the battle of the wilderness" 



WITH MAPS 




BOSTON 
JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY 



Copyright, 1912 
By Morris Schaff 



330\83 



This book is dedicated to my wife and children, 

l^arrg, 3^otiman, ^allg, and 

long since departed blue-eyed 

Cljarlotte 

Morris Schaff 



LIST OF MAPS 

Richmond to Appomattox . . . Frontispiece 

Sailor's Creek 104 

Appomattox Court House 220 



THE SUNSET OF THE 
CONFEDERACY 



I 



Longer are the shadows, richer are the colors of the 
evening clouds, deeper is the feeling as the close of 
the day draws near and the sun goes down : so was 
it with the War of the Great Rebellion as its end 
drew near. That momentous struggle had gone on 
for four long years. Much gallant blood had been 
shed, thousands of graves had been filled; and now, 
Sunday, the second day of April, 1865, — a memorable 
month and a memorable year in the annals of our 
country, — had come, and the church bells of Rich- 
mond, the capital of the Confederacy, were ringing 
for the morning service. 

Bright over the city was the sun in the bending 
sky, the jonquils were glowing in the gardens, the 
southern woods were sweet with the bloom of the 
jessamine, and the fields were gay with the voices 
of birds and brooks, — but the gloom of the people 
was deep indeed. For an army of the North, having 
fought its way from the bank of the Ohio to the bank 
of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, a march 
of five or six hundred miles, had cut artery after 

1 



2 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

artery of military supply, had brought the miseries 
and horrors of war to the door of many a home, and 
had left behind it, especially in Georgia and South 
Carolina, a track of vast and ruthless devastation. 

The Confederate armies that had contested with 
it so valiantly the bloody fields of Shiloh, Perryville, 
Stone's River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, 
Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville, had been reduced 
by losses and repeated reverses to a disorganized 
and desponding fragment. And on that very day 
Sherman's army, every flag and bit of clothing 
scented with burning pine, crouched like a tiger for 
a final, savage leap. (A friend on duty in the Ord- 
nance Office at Washington once told me that it was 
unnecessary for the officers of that army, coming to 
settle their accounts after the surrender, to tell him 
where they had served, for before they could speak, 
the odor of burning southern pine had told the story.) 

So it may be said, and said truthfully, that on this 
fair Sunday morning all the territory of the Confed- 
eracy east of the Mississippi, with the exception of 
adjacent parts of Virginia and North Carolina, had 
been overrun and overpowered by the Federal forces; 
and although the people as individuals were uncon- 
quered, their hopes of success were fast turning to 
ashes. For the Confederacy — a martial embodi- 
ment of long and honestly held views of the Sover- 
eignty of the States; a principle so sound and essen- 
tial to the safety and dignity of our country, but 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 3 

asserted, alas! so untimely and at the cost of so 
much gallant blood and treasure by what we see 
now was a raving political delirium — had met with 
undreamed-of and untoward experiences. Her arm- 
ies, to their surprise, had encountered forces equally 
valiant; and, instead of going on from victory to 
victory, had suffered repeated, almost mortal re- 
pulses. But keener, I am fain to believe, than the 
defeat at the hands of underestimated and too 
generally despised foes, was the disappointment and 
humiliation the South had met with from the aris- 
tocratic governments of the old world, which had 
been counted on with absolute certainty to reach 
out warm hands of welcome. But they, with satiric 
politeness and despicable evasion, denied her recog- 
nition; and there was brought home the truth of 
what had long ago been said: "Put not your trust 
in princes." 

Again, in the administration of civil affairs all had 
not gone well. Finances which might have been 
nursed into paramount strength had been terribly 
bungled, practically thrown away; as a result, 
hunger and want had become the tent-mates of 
every Southern soldier in the field; and, as troubles 
go in pairs, faction and cabal, the twin dusky-eyed 
whelps of balked ambition, tore the Cabinet and Con- 
gress, day in and day out. 

These surprises and adversities of four years were 
not without profound and serious results. The 



4 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

dearest and warmest lover of the Confederacy had 
to confess, in the spring of 1865, that Fortune had 
turned its face away from her, and that her strength 
was almost gone. Having heard the cheers and be- 
held the joy with which she was hailed by the South- 
ern friends of my youth at West Point, — and alas! 
how many laid down their lives for her ! — I am 
free to say that I never think of her distressful last 
days without a sense of pity. Eager and yearning 
eyes of the Confederacy, are you looking for a friend 
among the nations? Oh, you shall look in vain: 
none, none will come; for the Spirit of the Ages has 
written the hated word Slavery in big letters across 
your breast; yet, in the memories of the sons and 
daughters of the men who fell for you, you will 
dwell transjfigured as an image of sweet and radiant 
splendor. 

The South's only hope, her rock, shield, and horn 
of salvation, now lay in the Army of Northern 
Virginia, which, after four years of brilliant moves 
and matchless courage, had been manoeuvred and 
forced back from the Rapidan by the lack of num- 
bers, but not of spirit, to the defense of the lines 
of Richmond. There, under severe fire, day and 
night, hopeless of ever again flying their colors de- 
fiantly as of old on the banks of the Rapidan and 
Rappahannock, the veterans of Gaines's Mill, Mal- 
vern Hill, Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spott- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 5 

sylvania, and Cold Harbor — and every star that 
shines and every wind that breathes over these 
fields calls them fields of glory — had stood in rags 
and hunger through the unusually cold winter days, 
receiving pitiful letters daily, letters full of heart- 
breaking home distresses, and often blurred and 
dampened with the tears of loving eyes. But, not- 
withstanding their own sufferings and those keener 
ones of hearth and cradle, they remained loyally, 
illustriously steadfast to their colors, and for com- 
fort and strength went to the source to which we all 
go. Nightly they would gather, and on bended 
knees, with palm to palm, tears channeling their 
brave faces, ask God to guard and comfort their 
homes and little ones and at last to own and bless 
the Confederacy. 

Since the Christian Era, what supreme hours 
the believers in God have gone through! How the 
beseeching, conflicting prayers have threaded suns 
and moons and hosts of stars in their travels toward 
Him! And He has heard them all, and wisely ruled 
for the best; and to-day He blesses the Southland 
with peace and plenty, and night and morning fills 
her lap with the fruits of the field. 

Such was the state of the army; and as the bells 
were ringing that Sunday morning let the sweet 
comforts of that other heavenly world gleam as they 
may to the people of Richmond as in faith they 
looked upward, yet sweep the Confederacy far and 



6 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

wide, and their eyes would seek comfort in vain. 
All the historic region of their beloved Virginia 
east of the Blue Ridge, from the James to the Poto- 
mac, which had been one continuous battling ground, 
was now so scourged and ravaged that it was a 
pitiful scene. Moreover, in the previous autumn 
the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia's granary and 
gallery of beautiful views, which hitherto had been 
spared, was despoiled; for, after practically obliter- 
ating Early's army, — which, to weaken Grant's 
hold on Petersburg, had threatened Washington 
by way of the Shenandoah, — Sheridan laid waste 
with the torch that mountain-cradled, wheat-bear- 
ing, brook-singing valley. 

But despite all these vicissitudes and the deepening 
shadows of impending disaster, the people of Rich- 
mond, suffering for the necessaries of life and wit- 
nessing daily the wide-spread dying out of enthusiasm 
for the Confederacy, as well as the rapid drying up 
of the streams of its resources, had not given way en- 
tirely to despair; in fact, they were surprisingly 
hopeful; their faith in the righteousness of their 
cause, the genius of Lee, and the courage of his army, 
was firm. 

Sunday, — and the bells were calling the people 
to worship. Old and noted Richmond families 
uncovered at the door and reverently sought their 
pews at St. Paul's, seven out of ten of the women 
in mourning. In the solemn quiet sat the aged 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 7 

fathers, their hair falling white, and many a mother 
with high-bred face, sorrowing for the boys who 
would never come home. There in the subdued light 
of the sanctuary they sat, while the bells, which had 
clanged so joyfully at the birth of the Confederacy, 
reluctantly and sadly boomed their final notes, as 
if they already knew, what the congregation little 
expected, that when they should ring again on the 
next Sunday, at that very hour, the Confederacy 
would be on its death-bed, breathing its last. 

Jefferson Davis, President of the ill-fated cause, 
above middle height, lithe, distinguished, neatly 
arrayed in gray, came up the centre aisle with mod- 
est, dignified quietude of manner, entered his pew 
on the right and bowed his head in prayer. His 
spare austere face showed the effect of four years 
of care, as well it might, for who ever faced a longer 
and fiercer tempest .^^ but he carried with him to 
St. Paul's, as everywhere, his habitual atmosphere 
of invincible courage and the never-failing bloom 
of urbanity. 

From my point of view, and in this I may be very 
wrong, yet, notwithstanding all that may be said 
of his limitations, when I consider the bleak, in- 
herent, and heart-breaking difficulties of his position, 
and how he met them, holding his turbulent forces 
intact and aggressive to the very end, far and away 
he soars above every public character, civil or mil- 
itary, of the Confederacy. Let this be as it may, the 



8 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

organ droned the last of the usual colorless Venite, 
and the service began. 

Along the sunshiny side of the empty streets, 
here and there, convalescents from the hospitals 
sauntered, pale, some armless, and some on crutches. 
On its staff above the roof of the near-by capitol, the 
flag of the Confederacy drooped in the mild sunshine 
the stars of its blue saltier shining from its folds 
above steeple and chimney and over the spring- 
time gladness of the fields. Out in Holywood, 
where Stuart lay with so many of the best and the 
bravest, and where Mr. Davis's dust is now resting, 
the robins, sparrows, catbirds, redbirds, turtle-doves 
and mocking-birds were building their nests among 
the evergreens and native trees. 

At the foot of the knolls of Holywood, the stately 
James flowed murmuring by, on by the shores of 
Belle Isle and the baleful walls of Libby Prison, 
from whose grated windows looked hollow-eyed, 
half-starved Northern prisoners of war, who, as 
they heard the bells of Richmond ringing, no doubt 
recalled the bells of home and longed for release 
and peace. 

It was Communion Sunday, and the sacred ele- 
ments covered with a white cloth were on the table. 
Doctor Charles Minnegerode, the rector of St. Paul's, 
a diminutive, fervid, transplanted German, was de- 
livering his usual tense, extempore address, when 
the sexton, a portly aging man, with ruffles at his 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 9 

wrists and bosom, and polished brass buttons on a 
faded suit of blue, advanced up the aisle with soft 
but stately tread, and after touching the President 
on the shoulder with solemnity and his one-day-in- 
the-week lofty importance, handed him a message. 
Mr. Davis threw his blue-gray eyes rapidly over the 
fatal dispatch, grasped his soft, creamy-white hat, 
rose, and withdrew calmly. 

Hardly had he left the door before the sexton again 
marched up the aisle and, bending, spoke to General 
Joseph Anderson, who at once took his leave. Then 
followed two more grand entries — and I think the 
Confederacy, though wan her cheek, smiled faintly; 
for like everything born in America, she must have 
had a sense of humor. Heaven be blessed for the 
gift, and I hope they buried the dignified sexton in 
his ruffled shirt and suit of blue with brass buttons 
in due pomp; peace to his clay wherever it lies — . 
At his fourth presageful march up the aisle, again 
with a message to a prominent official, anxiety 
seized the congregation, and like alarmed birds they 
rose at once and left the church; and not until the 
bewildered people cleared the door and mingled with 
the throng that had already gathered in the modest 
vestibule and on the pavement, was the purport of 
the message to Mr. Davis revealed. There in con- 
sternation they saw government employees of a 
department that occupied an opposite building 
frantically carrying bundles of public documents out 



10 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

into the middle of the street and setting them on fire. 
Then the appalling significance of it all broke on 
them, and they melted away to their homes in dread 
and anguish. The smoke of the burning records soon 
became the breath of panic, and by the time twilight 
came on, the city was in tragic confusion. 

When I was in Richmond at the unveiling of 
Mr. Davis's monument, a few years ago, I went 
into the historic church and sat awhile. The sun was 
bright in the cloudless sky, the roses were fresh in 
the gardens, for it was June, and sweet was the silence 
in St. Paul's; and, thank God, sweet was the peace 
of the land ! As I sat there in the stillness, the solemn 
past, as on a great and deeply shadowed river's 
breast, went drifting by, and it seemed to me a 
striking circumstance that the news of the breaking 
of Lee's lines, foreshadowing as it did the immediate 
collapse of the Confederacy, should reach its devout 
President in a church on a Sunday, and, remarkably 
enough, at the Communion service. Who knows 
whether, since the earnest prayers of so many had to 
be unanswered, it was not ordained in compensation, 
that the sacred place and the sacred hour should 
lend their serene and holy associations to this memory? 



II 



The lines which Lee's army had held throughout 
the winter began on the north of Richmond, well 
out from its suburbs, and after circling them about 
to the east and south, led to Chaffin's Bluff on the 
James, some six or seven miles below the city. There 
they crossed to Drury's Bluff, uniting with a line 
of great strength that started on the bank of Swift 
Creek nearly opposite Petersburg, securing the rail- 
road between it and Richmond, and barring all exit 
to our forces in the angle between the rivers. It 
was known as the Bermuda Hundred line. Those 
of Petersburg, the main or outer lines, began on the 
right bank of the Appomattox, ran eastward a 
mile or less on the crest of a ravine, then bore away 
southwestward to Hatcher's Run, and after crossing 
it turned westward till they came to what is known 
as the Claiborne Road, which they followed north- 
ward to the Run again. There they ended, seven or 
eight miles southwest of Petersburg, and at least 
thirty odd miles from where they started west of 
the Brooke Pike north of Richmond. 

From Chaffin's Bluff, on the left bank of the James, 

back to Richmond, they were several deep, and con- 

11 



12 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

sisted generally of strong, traversed breastworks, 
connecting what is known as detached earthworks 
with heavy parapets and deep ditches, all fronted 
with abatis and skirmish-line rifle-pits. They still 
can be traced; and had you, reader, seen our troops 
try to carry them, as I did, in front of Petersburg, 
on a hot July morning in the battle-summer of 1864, 
you would have discovered how truly formidable 
they were, and your heart would have beaten, I 
know, with mine, as the column, with flags flying, 
white and red bands rippling in the morning sun, 
moved to the assault and was mowed down by the 
enemy's guns. The gently upward-sloping ground 
over which the men advanced toward the Crater, 
for that was the action, was as blue with the bodies of 
the dead as a field of gentians. Yes, truly their line 
of works was strong and they had as brave men as 
ever lived to hold them. 

Longstreet's two divisions. Field's and Kershaw's, 
were in the works north of the James; Mahone of 
Hill's corps, on the Bermuda Hundred front; while 
the rest of Hill's troops and a division of Ewell's 
old corps under Gordon, the one that struck us so 
hard in the Wilderness, occupied the long Petersburg 
lines; Lee's cavalry were veiling his right, but widely 
scattered, having to forage for themselves. 

Richmond and its immediate defenses were under 
Ewell, a serious, long, lean-faced, doming-browed, 
pop-eyed man, and unconsciously amusing on ac- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 13 

count of his natural eccentricities, yet one of the 
kindest, truest-hearted and most lovable that ever 
lived. He had lost a leg during the War, and when 
mounted, had to be strapped to his horse " Rifle,'* 
a flea-bitten gray, and was famous for his skill in 
" deviling " turkey-legs. When well along in years 
he married a Widow Brown, and always in introducing 
any one to her, would say, " Mrs. Brown, allow me 
to present my friend So-and-so." Ewell was the man, 
too, who declared that he believed Stonewall Jack- 
son was a lunatic for claiming that he could not use 
red pepper on account of its giving him rheumatism 
in his left leg! 

What I am about to say in reference to Jackson 
is of very little concern to my fellow men, for his 
star is set high and will shine on long after this 
narrative is forgotten and its writer turned to ob- 
scure dust. But for some reason or other, brilliant 
as were his military exploits, he never won my admi- 
ration as a man, like Ewell, Lee, Longstreet, Stuart, 
and so many others; and had he died without utter- 
ing as sweet a sentiment as ever passed the lips of 
a dying soldier, his career and personality would not 
engage this pen for a single moment. But when that 
cold ruminant nature, just on the point of exchanging 
mortality for immortality, breathes softly between 
his ashen lips, " Let us cross over the River and lie 
down in the shade of the trees," and its spirit mounts 
on its heavenly way, I am conscious of one of life's 



14 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

mysteries, and feel another proof of God's abundance 
in blessing the world with tender feeling. Without 
this utterance, Stonewall Jackson would have been 
nothing more to me than a belated, uninteresting 
Roundhead, a dull, cast-iron military hero; but 
with it he is transfigured; and may the last moments 
of us all be attended with like visions of rest. 

Besides a provisional force made up of employees, 
clerks, convalescents, and the like, Ewell had a 
small division of two brigades, chiefly heavy artillery, 
commanded by Custis Lee, the great general's son, 
to whom, while Custis was a cadet at West Point, 
Lee wrote as good a letter as ever father wrote to son. 

Such in general was the extent and character of 
Lee's lines and the troops that occupied them just 
before the final campaign began. Our lines, con- 
forming to theirs in direction, were built like them, 
and in many places were so very close that one could 
almost tell the color of a man's eyes. 

What was known as the Army of the James, con- 
sisting of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth corps 
and a small division of cavalry under my classmate 
Mackenzie, — peace to his ashes ! — held the lines 
north of the James and those of the Bermuda Hun- 
dred front. Facing Petersburg, with its right resting 
on the Appomattox, was the Ninth corps, com- 
manded by Parke; next came the Sixth, under 
Wright; then Humphreys with the Second, joining 
the Fifth, which had been led so long by the un- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 15 

fortunate Warren, and which now held the extreme 
left. 

Sheridan, who had rejoined the Army of the 
Potomac with the First and Third divisions of his 
superb cavalry, having struck boldly across the 
country from the Shenandoah Valley, — and the 
ashes of its burned mills, barns, and stacks of har- 
vested grain remember him yet, — had united them 
with their old comrade-division, which had remained 
with the army, and posted them all well to the front 
and left of Warren. 

Besides these land forces, we had also a number 
of war-vessels, several of them heavy iron-clads, 
lying with steam up in the James, off City Point. 
That was our base of supplies; and at the edge of 
the bluff overlooking the James and Appomattox 
(for it is there they meet), was Grant's headquarters. 
I have no memory of the War more stirring than that 
which filled the eye from that bluff by day or by 
night. The broad rivers at our feet, dotted with 
craft of all kinds: noisy, stubborn tugs, barges, 
steamboats, steamships, and delicately-masted sail- 
ing ships, some coming, some going, threading their 
way slowly and carefully through the anchored 
vessels; the bank lined with wharves and store- 
houses; the narrow space between them and the 
sharply-pitching, clay bluff, a swarm of army 
wagons, ambulances, soldiers, laborers, black and 
white; the grave, steady rumble; the complaining 



16 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

screech of lifting anchors; the whistles hoarse and 
deep of the passing ships; and lo, plain coffins going 
aboard the Washington boat on the way home; all 
that and much more could be seen and heard from 
sunrise to sunrise. It was pleasant, when all the 
tumult was over and the hush of night had come, 
to look down on the river and see the dim red, blue, 
and yellow lights of the vessels, and all so still save 
some busy, puffing tug. It was pleasant, but always 
half-way sad, to hear the little bells on the men-of- 
war striking the lonely hours. 

Out in the river among all those lights, at the date 
this narrative deals with, a trim steamboat called 
the Mary Martin was lying; and aboard was Abra- 
ham Lincoln. Knowing from Grant that he was 
about to move, the President's anxiety was so great 
that he could not stay in Washington, so he came 
down to be near his well-beloved army in its last trial. 

Such then was the general character of our lines 
and theirs, and the forces in them at the beginning 
of the end. 

Various figures have been given estimating the 
strength of Lee's army. That it was nearer fifty 
than forty thousand I am inclined to believe. But 
however that may be. Grant had more than twice 
as many; and, moreover, his army had had warm 
clothing and food in abundance, while Lee's had 
had neither sufficient food nor clothing, and the 
winter had been one of rigorous, miserable cold. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 17 

The following letter from Lee to the Confederate 
Secretary of War lifts the curtain on his army's 
dismal state: "Yesterday, Feby. 7th, 1865 — the 
most inclement day of the winter — the troops had 
to be maintained in line of battle, having been in 
the same condition two previous days and nights. 
I regret to be compelled to state that under these 
circumstances, heightened by assaults and fire of 
the enemy, some of the men have been without meat 
for three days and all are suffering from reduced 
rations, scant clothing, exposed to battle, cold, hail, 
and sleet. Their physical strength, if their courage 
survives, must fail under this treatment." 

Although they were true of heart and their faith- 
fulness reached to the clouds, there was something 
more than the lack of food and clothing that wasted 
the spirits of his men. Defeat had drawn near and 
was staring at them, and the future was growing 
blacker and blacker. 

" Eleven men of the 1st regiment," says the histo- 
rian of McGowan's South Carolina brigade, " quitted 
camp in the early part of March, 1865, and started 
for home. Five were captured, four shot; one of 
these four had been an excellent soldier and bore that 
day the scars of three wounds received in battle." 

On the other hand, for our men a sense of on- 
coming victory was kindling the sky of their hopes 
as the sun flushes the dawn. 



Ill 



Grant, having resolved to bring the issue to its 
ultimate trial, on the night of March 27 brought Ord 
from north of the James with three divisions of 
infantry, two white and one colored, and Macken- 
zie's cavalry. When they reached Humphreys' 
and Warren's lines, Ord's troops slipped into them as 
these two veteran corps drew out preparatory to 
moving for Lee's right. Leaving Parke, Wright, 
and Ord in the lines, Grant, with Sheridan leading, 
started Humphreys and Warren on the morning 
of Wednesday the twenty-ninth. 

Lee was alert to his danger, and on the thirty-first 
struck Warren, who was feeling for his right, a 
heavy blow. Meanwhile Sheridan had gained 
Dinwiddle Court-House, four or five miles beyond 
Warren, and had moved toward Five Forks on his way 
to the South Side Railroad, about all of the enemy's 
cavalry having gathered in to head him off. Lee, 
realizing how important it was to check Sheridan, 
sent Pickett and Bushrod Johnson's divisions of 
infantry to the aid of his cavalry, and together on 
the thirty-first they drove Sheridan back to Din- 
widdle, winning almost a complete victory over him. 

18 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 19 

But threatened by Warren, who had been ordered by 
Grant to face about and attack their left rear, they 
withdrew during the night (Friday) to Five Forks, 
and there threw up a temporary Kne of entrench- 
ments. 

As soon as Lee, in the course of the forenoon 
of April first, Saturday, heard that Sheridan was 
likely to renew the offensive, he started several bri- 
gades under Anderson to Pickett's help, for at that 
juncture of his situation it was not only vital that 
Sheridan should be stayed, but also thrown back 
from Five Forks; but before Anderson could reach 
Pickett, Sheridan, reinforced by Warren, assailed him 
and drove him with great confusion from the field, 
capturing thousands of prisoners and several guns, 
the uncaptured Confederates fleeing northward in 
utter confusion through the darkness, for it was just 
at nightfall that they met their overwhelming defeat. 

Pickett's and Fitz Lee's failure to hold that posi- 
tion was fatal, and offered a singular instance of 
Fortune's bad turn of her wheel for Lee; inasmuch 
as, when Sheridan made his attack, the famous, 
long-haired Pickett, Gettysburg's hero, and the 
cavalry commanders, blue and gay-eyed Fitz Lee, 
gigantic, high-shouldered and black-eyed Rosser, 
were engaged in planking shad on the north bank 
of Hatcher's Run, two miles or more in the rear 
of their resolute but greatly outnumbered troops. 
Although the fire was quick and heavy, it was com- 



20 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

pletely smothered by tlie intervening timber, and 
notwithstanding the heroic efforts of the gallant 
Munford and the infantry brigade commanders, 
before Fitz Lee, Pickett and K-osser got to the front 
the day was lost; so at least the story was told to 
me by my friend Rosser, who lately and in honor 
went to his grave. 

The news of this disaster did not reach Lee till 
about half-past seven Saturday night, whereupon 
he telegraphed to Longstreet, in the lines north of 
the James, to come to Petersburg at once with one 
of his divisions; while Grant, as soon as the same 
news reached him, — he was sitting alone before a 
struggling camp-fire in a thick, dripping pine wood, 
for it was raining hard, — ordered all the guns to 
open on the Petersburg lines, and the Sixth and Ninth 
corps to assault at daybreak. 

Longstreet, in response to Lee's dispatch, started 
Field's division by rail, and then set off with his 
staff across the country for Petersburg and Lee's 
headquarters. To his dying day he spoke of that 
night's long ride. ■ Of course, our batteries having 
opened in obedience to Grant's orders, theirs re- 
plied; and, as Longstreet rode on, those revengeful 
batteries answered each other with jarring thunder, 
and heavy mortar-shells rose from fort to fort, the 
small, trailing red lights of their burning, sputtering 
fuses outlining against the pitchy sky their high 
curving way. Sometimes one was just rising for its 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 21 

flight as the other, coming down with accelerated 
speed, exploded with surly, tremendous roar. Few 
men ever took a ride on a dark night toward the 
boom of a hundred guns, under a sky like that. 

It was about dawn Sunday, April 2nd, when he 
reached Lee's headquarters at the Turnbull House, 
several miles southwest of Petersburg. Lee was 
still on his bed suffering from rheumatism, an ail- 
ment which had troubled him, and sometimes 
seriously, for years. He had Longs treet come to a 
seat at his bedside, explained what had happened 
the evening before at Five Forks, and told him to go, 
as soon as his troops arrived, to the support of Pick- 
ett's men, on whom he laid no blame or reproach 
as they had had to meet greatly superior numbers. 
But at that very hour, and long before Field of Long- 
street's division got to Petersburg, the crisis had 
come; Lee's lines had been broken, and it was no 
longer a question of regaining Five Forks, but of 
holding on to Petersburg itself. 

The Sixth and Ninth corps, arrayed several lines 
deep, their pioneers in front with axes to cut open- 
ings through the abatis, made their assaults, the 
former on Hill's, the latter Gordon's, just as the 
gray light of morning was sifting in. They carried 
their points of attack, a mile or so apart, valiantly, 
but with heavy loss, for the enemy, although greatly 
overmatched in numbers, defended their lines with 
uncommon bravery. 



22 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Not long since, toward the close of a liazy October 
day, I stood on the ground the Ninth corps won. The 
field, over which they advanced so firmly, sloped 
away to the east, and lay beautifully still in its 
autumn dream. The shadows were long, and a herd 
of cows at the lower edge of the pasture were feeding 
toward the gate, while some barefooted boys were 
approaching to let them go home through the bars 
for the evening milking. There were no flaming 
colors, no roar of guns or crash of bursting shells, 
no dead and bayoneted Confederates (for they stood 
to the very last), no wild cheers or trumpets pealing; 
but I thought I heard the mellow notes of a distant 
harp, and if I were asked whence they came I should 
guess that the harp was resting against the breast 
of Glory, and with swimming eyes her hands were 
sweeping the strings softly for the dead of both 
armies. 

As soon as A. P. Hill heard of the Sixth corps' 
successful assault he left his headquarters, which 
was not far from Lee's, to go to his disrupted lines. 
Accompanied by a single courier, he came suddenly, 
at the edge of a wood, upon two of our men belonging 
to Wright's corps, who had pushed on through the 
breach. Hill drew his pistol and demanded their 
immediate surrender, whereupon they skipped be- 
hind a big tree, and, resting their guns one above 
the other against it, fired, killing him instantly. 
Soon his body was found, taken to Petersburg, and 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 23 

placed in an ambulance which started for Richmond, 
arriving at the south end of Mayo's Bridge about 
midnight. There the ambulance had to wait an 
hour or more, owing to the tide of troops and flight 
of citizens pouring over the bridge out of the city. 
Once across, the men drove to an undertaker's shop 
whose doors had been demolished by the mob, and 
after groping awhile in the darkness their hands fell 
on a coffin. They washed the face of the punctilious 
and ever gallant man, and on pulling off his gauntlets 
found that the fatal shot had cut off the thumb of 
his left hand and passed directly through his heart, 
coming out at the back. Closing the lid tenderly 
over him, they put the casket into the ambulance, 
recrossed the bridge and wended their way up the 
south side of the island-dotted, royal James; and 
about two o'clock on Monday afternoon they buried 
him in the old Winston family graveyard. Many 
fields, as well they may, treasure his name; and 
when Lee was breathing his last, Hill's image, with 
Stonewall Jackson's, was in his glazing eye. 

That portion of Hill's corps to the left, as they 
faced their own works, of the point the Sixth corps 
carried, rallied behind Gordon, who, although he 
had lost the right of his lines, was holding the Ninth 
corps under Parke from making further headway. 
Hill's other brigades, among them Cooke's, Scales's, 
Lane's, McRae's, and McGowan's, — cut off from 
falling back on Petersburg by the advance of the 



24 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Sixth corps through the gate it had opened with 
such high valor, — followed what are known as the 
Cox and the River roads up the south side of the 
Appomattox, pursued by Miles 's division of Hum- 
phreys' corps. 

By ten o'clock — it was about this hour Lee sent 
the telegram whose receipt by Mr. Davis has already 
been given — all the outer lines of Petersburg, 
except those stubbornly held by Gordon on the north 
side, were in our hands. 



IV 



Grant's and Meade's movements meanwhile are 
given with detail in the diary of that gallant soldier 
and cultivated gentleman. Col. Theodore Lyman, on 
Meade's staff. 

"April 2nd. 7.30. Dispatch that McCalHster 
of 3d. div. 2d. corps had captured the picket line 
in his front — Humphreys', — a good deal of cheer- 
ing from the right of the 2d. corps — Seymour of 
the 6th said to be on the south side track. 

" 8.15 A. M. Dispatch that Ord and Hays (2d. 
div. 2d. corps) have taken the line in their front. 
(The 19th and 20th Mass. took a work with several 
guns and some hundreds of prisoners.) In fact the 
enemy were abandoning this part of the line as fast as 
possible, and moving to their own right. At this time 
the General rode off to the left, — i. e. to the west — 
with myself alone, so that, for some time, I wrote 
his orders and dispatches. 

" 8.45 A. M. Sent telegraph ordering Benham to 
move up at once to Parke, from City Point. We 
found Gen. Grant in an open field, in front of Dab- 
ney's Mill, and, after a few moments of conversation. 
Gen. Meade kept on to the left and followed our 

25 



26 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

line of breastworks, the men of Mott's division 
cheering him loudly. 

" 9 A. M. At the Rainie house we found Gen. 
Humphreys. Miles's division, having been down the 
plank, was returning, and was ordered up the Clai- 
borne road, while the rest of Humphreys's force was 
to move by the left flank and pass up the Boydton 
road. It was presumed (10 a. m.) that Sheridan and 
5th. corps would be moving along the Cox and River 
roads, towards Petersburg, and would join our left 
(Miles's div.); Sheridan, however, turned N. W. 
and followed that part of the enemy that went 
along the Namozine road, the 5th corps being still 
detached under his orders. Meantime, Wright, 
finding that no enemy lay between him and the 
advancing 2d. corps, faced about and moved on 
Petersburg, so that his left might swing to the Appo- 
mattox, while his right should touch the left of 
the 24th corps that was reaching towards the 9th. 

" Now we started for the most interesting ride 
that perhaps I ever had, a ride straight up the 
Boydton plank road, where hitherto none might go, 
save as prisoners of war! We passed the battery, 
whence came the fatal shot for poor Mills, and the 
entrenched line, with its abatis. Then descended 
to Hatcher's Run bridge, where our men planted 
their flag at the first fight there. We crossed, rode 
up the ascent and came on the wide space of open 
land that surrounds the town. As we struck the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 27 

rear of the column marching onward, the men broke 
into loud cheers which were continued all along. 
It was grand! We halted at 12, by the Harmon 
house, where Gen. Grant already was. Meantime 
Parke's men were holding on gallantly to their 
captures, while the enemy knew their only safety 
lay in disputing to the utmost. One lunette was 
retaken by them, but the rest remained with us.'* 
All of the Confederate outer lines to the right of 
Gordon having now been carried or abandoned, the 
Sixth, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth corps, and 
two divisions of Humphreys' Second corps, began to 
converge on the extreme right of the inner line of 
Petersburg's defenses. About one o'clock Foster's 
and Turner's divisions, under Gibbon, drew up in 
front of Forts Gregg and Baldwin, the latter a 
redoubt, the former an enclosed work with heavy 
parapets and a deep ditch, which one of the heroic 
defenders says was about fourteen feet wide, eight 
feet deep and about eleven feet to the top of the 
parapet. These field-works were connected by an 
unfinished line of rifle-pits and surmounted a gentle 
incline, which rose from a sluggish, difficult slough, 
its clear slope forming a natural glacis to the brave 
forts. Gregg, named for a very gallant man who 
laid down his life in the previous autumn in front 
of their lines north of the James, was stockaded in 
the rear with loopholes for musketry, and at the 
time of the assault had a section of three-inch rifled 



28 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

guns, of Captain Chew's Maryland battery com- 
manded by Lieutenant Frank McElroy of the Wash- 
ington Artillery of New Orleans. These guns, it is 
said, had been captured at Winchester on Lee's 
march to Gettysburg in the long June days of 1863. 

The garrison consisted mainly of the 12th and 16th 
Mississippi of Harris' brigade, who, having been 
brought over from the Bermuda Hundred front the 
night before to go to the aid of Pickett at Five Forks, 
in the morning, on account of Hill's lines having been 
broken, were hurried back from their bivouac be- 
yond the Turnbull house, Lee's headquarters, to the 
inner line, and sent to man Gregg and Baldwin. On 
reaching the forts they found some artillerymen and 
squads of infantry of other commands already there, 
making, in all, somewhat over three hundred men in 
Gregg. How many there were in Baldwin, chiefly 
Mississippians of Harris' brigade, I do not know, 
but howsoever many there were or from which 
soever of the southern states they hailed, they and 
their comrades in Gregg made a defense as glorious 
as any troops have ever made; for like two glittering 
peaks their valor ended the war's mountain range 
of carnage. 

Gibbon moved up Foster's division to charging 
distance, some four or five hundred yards from Gregg. 
Osborn's brigade on the right, Dandy's and Fair- 
child's on the left. Turner marshalled two of his 
brigades. Potter's and Curtis', in close support. And 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 29 

at one p. m. that war-famous Sunday the trumpet 
sounded the charge, and off with determined faces, 
under leaning, rippHng colors, our men dashed at 
Gregg. Osborn's 39th Illinois, moving straight for- 
ward, struck the front of the fort, the 67th Ohio, the 
salient to the right, the 62nd Ohio and 199th Penn- 
sylvania that on the left. Dandy led on the 100th 
New York, 10th Connecticut and 11th Maine. No 
sooner had they cleared the hampering slough with 
its sluggish pools and mane of willows and other 
water-loving bushes, than the little garrisons opened 
and from their dominating parapets poured levelled 
sheets of deadly musketry and canister, for the 
cannoneers, knowing what was coming, had piled 
every round they had within close grasp. 

By the time our men reached the moat, the glacis 
that had lovingly held on its sloping bosom many a 
sheaf of cradled wheat, was strewn with ripened 
sheaves of Northern courage, but note, alas! the 
soaked, crimson-stained uniforms and the glazing 
eyes of the gallant dead. Of course, the moat was 
a galling and effective obstruction. It soon filled with 
men struggling frantically to clamber up the high 
parapet, where they were met with pistol and bay- 
onet, and it was only after twenty-five or thirty min- 
utes of awful slaughter that the heroic garrison was 
conquered, and Dandy says : "I forbear to describe 
the scene inside that work after the surrender but I 
think at least one-fourth of the entire garrison was 



30 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

killed." As soon as Gregg surrendered, its guns were 
turned on Baldwin and Colonel Jaynes and a num- 
ber of men were made prisoners. 

It appears, according to Captain A. K. Jones of 
Port Gibson, Mississippi, who was one of the de- 
fenders of Gregg, that as the 12th and 16th were 
filing into the forts. General Cadmus Wilcox, com- 
manding a division of their corps, the 3rd (the body 
of its spare, brilliant commander, A. P. Hill, was 
hardly cold) , galloped up to Captain Jones, and dis- 
mounting, wanted to know who was in command. 
" Colonel Duncan! " replied Jones, and then Wilcox, 
mounting his horse so as to be heard, exclaimed in a 
loud voice, " Men, the salvation of Lee's army is in 
your keeping. Don't surrender this fort. If you can 
check the enemy for two hours, Longstreet will 
be here and the danger averted." Our artillery 
cut short his speech. How well the Mississippians 
and their brother Southerners in the fort answered 
to that appeal let Gibbon's and Turner's losses tell, 
— ten officers and one hundred and twelve men 
killed outright, twenty-seven officers and five hun- 
dred and sixty -five men wounded. — And in the fort 
clad in gray lay fifty-seven Confederate dead. 
These numbers, I think, fall short of the actual 
casualties. 

By the time these works were carried. Field's divi- 
sion of Longstreet's corps, that had been delayed three 
or four hours by a breakdown of the trains they were 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 31 

on, arrived from the Richmond lines and under Lee's 
very eye moved into the inner line of defenses and 
our men were in neither condition or mood to tackle 
them. 

By half-past three p. M., Miles overtook the forces 
fleeing westward, who, joining those that had set 
out to support Pickett, gave him battle at Suther- 
lands Station, some ten or twelve miles west of 
Petersburg, but were defeated at last with the loss 
of guns. 

Lee's situation was now exceedingly grave, and 
although Gordon's men were responding with great 
steadiness, the chances were barely even that he 
could hold on till night; and in case he could not, 
it was manifestly clear that the long-dreaded hour 
had come when both Petersburg and Richmond 
would have to be given up. 

And what the effects would be of Richmond's 
downfall its leading paper, the Examiner, had only 
a few weeks before set forth with seriousness and 
emphasis. " Our armies," said the able editor, 
" would lose the incentive inspired by a great and 
worthy object of defense; our military policy would 
be totally at sea; we should be without a hope or 
object, without civil or military organization; with- 
out a treasury or commissariat; without the means 
of keeping alive a wholesome and active public 
sentiment; without any of the appliances for sup- 
porting a cause depending upon a popular faith 



32 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

and enthusiasm; without the emblems or the sem- 
blance of nationality." 

In view of the end, which we now so clearly see was 
inevitable, I have sometimes thought it would have 
been better, sparing lives and days of suffering, had 
Lee that afternoon asked terms then and there of 
Grant. For Mr. Lincoln, who, like Solomon, had 
" wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and 
largeness of heart," was at City Point, only a few 
miles away; and, knowing his sagacity and his 
longing for peace, we can be sure that he would have 
dealt wisely and been abundantly generous. Be- 
sides, it might have proved a stroke on Lee's part 
attended with far-reaching and beneficent political 
results, that would have stamped a fitting obverse 
to his military fame, inasmuch as Mr. Lincoln's 
terms, backed as they would have been by the honor 
and good faith of the veteran Army of the Potomac, 
might have outlined a policy so merciful and prac- 
tical for bringing the states once more into harmony, 
that, notwithstanding his cruel and shameful death, 
the politicians would not have dared to repudiate 
it. 

But, like Grant, Lee had been educated at West 
Point, and that stern national school so inculcates 
the theory of the subordination of the military to 
the civil authority that the thought of encroaching 
upon, much less assuming, the prerogative of the 
Confederate Congress and Executive, never entered 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 33 

his mind, however convinced he may have been of 
the lean chance of success. 

And while I believe that he longed for peace with 
just as much holy eagerness as did Mr. Lincoln, 
yet we must bear in mind that, only a few months 
earlier, at Longstreet's suggestion he had made over- 
tures to Grant, and that Grant's response, dictated 
from Washington, shut the door with a slam on 
everything short of unconditional surrender. Meet- 
ing such a rebuff, he had, as we all have, a natural 
unwillingness to beg for peace at the hands of a 
cold enemy; and this unwillingness was the stronger 
because of his belief in the righteousness of his cause. 

However, is there real doubt that Mr. Lincoln 
would have let the South resume its rights of state- 
hood? I think not, for he knew, as we all know, 
that the brains and character of a state must be 
intrusted with the duties of carrying it on. 

But Lee did not know, nor did the bulk of Mr. 
Lincoln's Northern contemporaries know, the wis- 
dom, depth, and natural warmth of Mr. Lincoln's 
heart; much less did they dream of the way in 
which he would tower above the common level of 
his age; so, although it might have been a stroke of 
large and merciful consequence for Lee to have 
pocketed his rebuff and asked for terms, that he 
did not do it is not to be wondered at, when we come 
to know him better. And surely not, whatsoever that 
estimate of Lee's nature may be, if we lift our eyes 



34 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

from this misty, transitory life up to that undis- 
tracted power called Fate and see her looms 
all busy, their shuttles flying back and forth cease- 
less till the fullness of time is come. 

But let this conjecture engage attention as it may, 
Lee was faced by something far removed from 
airy conjecture, on the contrary and in fact with the 
gravest military exigency of his life. The one he 
confronted after Gettysburg, with the Potomac bank 
full behind him, and the Army of the Potomac that 
had just repulsed him on the point of attacking, was 
black, yet its cloud fell far short of what now over- 
hung him. Let us take a sweeping look at it, and 
I am sure that the way he met the situation, will 
challenge, not only the admiration of every student 
of war, but of every reader who admires lofty char- 
acter. 

The extreme right of his line turned by Sheridan 
the night before at Five Forks, Pickett and Fitz 
Lee, disastrously defeated on that field, retreating 
hopeless up the south bank of the Appomattox, 
followed by Anderson. The men from the Hatcher's 
Run line to the south and west of the point where the 
Sixth and Twenty-fourth corps were pouring through 
the gap the former had made in Hill's line, all cut off 
from Petersburg, and threatened with destruction by 
Sheridan and Miles; Hill, one of his ablest corps 
commanders, dead at his feet; Longstreet's corps, 
although on its way to Petersburg, yet, owing to a 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 35 

breakdown of the railway, not near enough to be of 
any immediate help, and Parke assaulting Gordon 
desperately. Is it easy to imagine a more trying 
situation? Yet, every account shows that Lee 
quailed not, nor for a moment lost his balance, by 
this critical turn of affairs; he sowed no seeds of 
panic by rushing from place to place making passion- 
ate appeals, but, calmly and self-reliantly, rallied 
what was left of Hill's forces for the defense of the 
inner lines. 

That he would have to abandon Petersburg, and 
Richmond, was self-evident, and the only question 
in his mind now, was, could he hold on till night.'^ 
But whether he could or not, in order to have his 
trains out of the way, he started them on the roads 
north of the Appomattox for Amelia Court-House, 
where he meant to re-assemble his army, and from 
there lead it on to Danville, so as to join forces 
with Johnston in North Carolina. 

The hours moved on, but not his lowring peril, 
yet Lee rose and met it with an adamantine will, 
worthy of greatness. A single incident, which illus- 
trates his poise and natural tenderness, and throws 
the charm of a sweet flower, a flower like that of the 
eglantine, into the field of this trying hour, gives me 
pleasure to record. 

His young and gallant aide, Walter H. Taylor, 
sought, and got permission to go to Richmond and 
marry his sweetheart. Off hurried the light-hearted 



36 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

youth, the marriage took place at midnight, and 
immediately after the ceremony he set out to rejoin 
the headquarters of his chief. Colonel Taylor at 
this writing is still vigorous, bodily and mentally, 
lives in Norfolk, and has a large family that with 
natural pride revere their honored parents. May 
this day, and every day to the end, be soft and sweet 
to the last living one of Lee's personal staff. 

The arrival of Field's division of Longstreet's corps. 
Grant not renewing the offensive after the fall of 
Gregg and Baldwin, and the sturdy way Gordon 
held off Parke, — indeed Parke was now, two p. m., on 
the defensive to retain what he had gained, — laid 
at rest in Lee's mind the question as to whether he 
could hold on till night. 

At or about this time, he telegraphed Ewell, 
" I wish you to make all preparations, quietly and 
rapidly, to abandon your position (Richmond) 
to-night. Send back on the line of Danville railroad all 
supplies, ammunition, etc., that is possible." I have 
emphasized those instructions, for in them lies an 
explanation of weighty circumstance, that gave rise, 
after the war, to some bitter controversy between 
Mr. Davis and his critics. Later in the afternoon. 
Col. Walter H. Taylor, before he set off for his wed- 
ding, formulated Lee's orders for withdrawal. The 
artillery should pull out as soon as it was dark, 
followed by the infantry, first Longstreet, and then 
Gordon, and all to take the roads to Bevil's Bridge 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 37 

on the Appomattox, and from there to Amelia 
Court-House. The troops in the Richmond and 
Bermuda Hundred hnes were notified to commence to 
withdraw at eight o'clock, pickets to stand until three 
A. M., and head for Goode's and Genito bridges on 
the Appomattox, thence to Amelia Court-House. In 
a dispatch to Breckenridge, Secretary of War, re- 
ceived at seven p. m., Lee said, " I have given all the 
orders to officers on both sides of the river and have 
taken every precaution that I can to make the move- 
ment successful. It will be a difficult operation, 
but I hope not impractical. The troops will all be 
directed to Amelia Court-House." 

The delivery and promulgation of Lee's orders, 
at one of the posts on the James that Sunday night, 
well deserve mention; and may the spirit of the 
occasion, signalized by reverence and recognition 
of a Power above all powers, breathe, God willing, 
on this narrative to the end. 

Major Stiles, commanding a battalion of artillery 
at Chaffin's Bluff, had stood, so he tells us in his ster- 
ling Four Years Under Marse Robert, a greater part 
of the day on the parapets of his works, listening 
to the guns at Petersburg. The guns he heard were 
on Gordon's front, for that brave man held his lines 
and fought Parke till the sun went down and the 
attack was given up. Their dull reverberations, 
rapid and continual, so foreboded adversity, that, 
before going to meet with his men for worship at 



38 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

nightfall, in a dimly lighted little chapel which they 
had built during the winter, he told his adjutant 
to remain in the office, and if any orders came, to 
bring them to him at once. " I read with the men," 
says the major, " the Soldier Psalm, the Ninety- 
first, and exhorted them in any special pressure 
that might come upon us in the near future, the ' ter- 
ror by night ' or the * destruction at noonday,' 
to abide with entire confidence in that ' stronghold,' 
to appropriate that ' strength.' " 

The major says that, as he uttered these last words, 
a lad's open face with brimming eyes caught his 
attention and checked his speech momentarily. 
Just then the door opened, and there stood the ad- 
jutant with an official communication in his hand. 
Stiles asked him to stand for a moment where he 
was, and proceeded to tell the men what, he was 
satisfied, was the purport of the adjutant's message. 
The young major, for he was scarcely twenty-five 
years of age, then led them in prayer, imploring the 
*' realization of what David had expressed in the 
psalm — for faith, for strength, for protection." 
After Amen had been said, all on bended knees 
and with heads bowed, — deep must have been its 
holy pause, — the major rose and read Lee's orders. 
Softly, at the appointed hour, for our sentinels 
were within speaking distance, his men stole out 
of their works and, leaving their hollow tents stand- 
ing, took up the march. Daylight, when it broke. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 39 

found them miles away in Chesterfield; and there 
they lay down and fell asleep in a grove. And I 
hope their slumber was sweet, and that the lad's 
eyes, if he had dreams, saw home or heaven. 

By the time the dead hours of the night had 
come on, the Petersburg forces were well across the 
Appomattox and the sun was just peeping over the 
tree tops when the last of the Richmond troops, 
Gary's brigade of South Carolina cavalry, crossed 
Mayo's Bridge over the James. 



V 



The abandonment of Richmond by the Confederate 
and state authorities, and by many of its prominent 
citizens, was marked by no such orderly and solemnly 
uplifting detail as distinguished the conduct of 
Major Stiles and his command. For some strange 
reason, little or no fortitude and self-possession 
were displayed. On the contrary, as soon as it was 
learned that the troops were to evacuate the lines 
that night, frantic with disappointment or dread, 
they began to pour toward the railway stations and 
the canal which, in those days, joined Richmond and 
Lynchburg, following the banks of the James, pack- 
ing themselves and their belongings into the cars 
or on the sleepy boats, and by sundown all the roads 
leading south and west into the country, then veiling 
with twilight, were filled with groups of anxious 
travelers, some on foot, some on horseback, and 
many in vehicles, often hired at fabulous prices. 

In all seriousness, how can this humiliating flight 
from the doomed city be accounted for.? Was it 
because they feared that our troops, like some of 
those of Sherman's, would turn barbarians and dis- 
grace themselves and their country by outrages on 

40 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 41 

persons and property? If so, that fear was ground- 
less; those who entered were under the firm hands 
of the mild and upright Weitzel, and carried them- 
selves with becoming humanity and dignity. Or 
was it because there had been dreams of trials for 
treason and visions of gallows? Let the answer be 
what it may, the scene was not heroic, and was un- 
becoming in its contrast with the fame of Richmond, 
the desperate stand at Antietam, the glorious charge 
of Pickett at Gettysburg, or the dead in Holy wood. 
Let us not forget, however, that it was a day of 
panic, and be charitable; above all, to the hundreds 
of minor officials, clerks, and employees in the 
various civil and military departments, drawn from 
all over the South. For all of them, I have nothing 
but pity in their distress; many were poor, far from 
home, and had only done their humble, tread-mill 
duties. But for all those who by hook or by crook 
had managed to keep out of the ranks, and especially 
for the oratorical, passion-inflaming politicians, I 
have nothing, and they deserve nothing, but con- 
tempt. Who knows how much of the mutual rage 
and cruelty of individuals in both armies — for 
cruelty begets cruelty — is attributable to the blis- 
tering, wounding speech, the habitual, unmitigated 
abuse of the entire North, accompanied by taunting 
sneers of that class before and during the War? In 
the final analysis, — let there be no mistake, — to 
their repeated gaffs of crowing, battle-challenging 



42 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

arrogance and unmerited disdain, the South owed 
the North's resolution to conquer or die. 

And who can say whether, in some measure at 
least, the atrocities that disgraced Sherman's march 
and the spirit of vindictiveness which for a moment 
swept the North after Mr. Lincoln's assassination, 
may not be laid at the doors of these frenzied de- 
claimers.f* 

I offer no veiled or surreptitious excuse for our 
armies in burning houses and barns of rich and poor, 
or pillaging and ruthlessly destroying the homes of 
those whose only offense was that their sons had 
dared to fight for honestly held principles. Nor do 
I exculpate the authorities, Northern or Southern, 
for the needless suffering of prisoners, or for the 
lack of care and humanity which made Andersonville 
and Salisbury gruesome horrors and filled row after 
row of graves at Elmira, Chicago, and Rock Island. 
To the very end of our country's history those 
graves will be a disgrace to South and North. No; 
the class I have in mind are the shrill, rabid, tongue- 
lashing, notoriety-craving and woe-breeding dema- 
gogues, whether born in the Northland or the South- 
land, who, by their rancorous, malignant speech, 
kindled the fires of our War. Read what appeared 
almost daily in the Southern press, consult the files 
of Congress, and mark the provoking, snarling 
poison-barbed language in the proceedings of 
Abolition conventions. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 43 

So, then, fire-eaters, in dread of retributive justice 
for your malicious abuse of heaven-born speech; 
contractors, leeches, who had bled the poor Confeder- 
acy; and you, too, loudly-dressed hangers-on and 
gamblers, who, in goodly numbers, infested the 
hotels and saloons of Richmond but who had not 
the manliness to shoulder a gun, — catch the de- 
parting trains if you can and disappear for good 
and all ! You made the evacuation of Richmond what 
it was, a panicky scene of terror; and when the 
Confederacy looks back, as I know it does, over those 
four troubled years, its eyes do not seek, nor does 
its heart yearn for you, no, but for those self-pos- 
sessed men of moral life, quiet demeanor, respect- 
ful speech, and honest convictions of the para- 
mount rights of the state, and for the young men 
in the ranks who stood by its colors to the end. 
On them, as on the fathers and mothers whose 
prayers night and morning went up for the Confed- 
eracy, will it look through the misting past, with 
justly proud and affectionate eyes. 

As the news of the evacuation spread, the scum 
of Richmond, scenting plunder, swarmed in from 
squalid suburbs and out of noisome lean-dog and 
yowling-cat haunted alleys. Naturally enough, 
these hungry and pitiful discards in the game of 
life, gathered before the government storehouses in 
the midst of the city. Their numbers swelled fast, 
soon became tumultuous, and the confused police 



44 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

had no more weight on that seared, ignorant and 
night-enshrouded mob, than so many thistle blooms; 
and pretty soon, crash went a window, and pillage 
began. The authorities, having lost their grip, 
made matters worse by ordering the barrels of whis- 
key and brandy to be rolled out of the saloons and 
the heads knocked in. Storehouse after storehouse 
was broken into. Debauch and Revelry, now cheek 
by jowl with Riot and the latent anarchy of the 
alleys, were having their day, as the scum, white and 
black, — the jail and penitentiary doors had been flung 
open, — lapped up the liquor as it ran in the gutters. 
" Met a band of women going hand in hand singing 
and carousing," says the color sergeant of the 18th 
Virginia in his account of the evacuation. He was 
on his way to report to the provost marshal. Major 
Carrington, in Capitol Square, with an extemporized 
command made up of the hospital stewards, clerks, 
and convalescent soldiers of Chimborazo Hospital. 
Meanwhile, amid a pandemonium of shouts and 
yells from drunken wretches, the exploding magazines 
of forts and fired war vessels shaking the earth, and 
hurling bursting shells on flaming arcs through the 
midnight sky, E well's troops, like troubled spectres, 
marched through the dimly lit and liquor-fuming 
streets. The color sergeant, on reporting, was 
directed to protect property and lives and to have 
tobacco houses ready for burning. Toward morning, 
fires, incendiary and otherwise, were set, and by 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 45 

seven o'clock on Monday, just as the last of the 
dazed forces crossed the James, the business heart 
of the city burst into flames, and the Confederate 
Capitol was overhung by the black, swirling clouds 
of a mad conflagration. Fortunately, by half-past 
eight or nine, Weitzel's corps marched in, stacked 
their guns, fought down the fire, and Richmond was 
saved from complete destruction. 

But what a night it had been ! And what a satiric 
contrast its debauch and flames offered to the torch- 
light procession in its streets that April night four 
years gone by when Virginia cut the tender cords 
which bound her to the Union she had nursed. " A 
track of transparencies gleamed from Church Hill 
to the Exchange Hotel, and there was a vast crowd 
which hung on the speeches of orators speaking 
from balconies, imparting words of fire to the head 
of the column that toiled for a mile in one of the 
main thoroughfares of Richmond." Oh, wild and 
passion-swept multitude! hearken not to your 
•inflaming orators, but to him who cried of old, " Be- 
hold I wfll turn back the weapons of war that are 
in your hands, and I myself will fight against you 
with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, 
even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath; and 
I will smite the inhabitants of this city, such as for 
death, to death; and such as for the sword, to the 
sword; and such as for the captivity, to the cap- 
tivity." 



46 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

The other day, as I was loitering through the Capi- 
tol grounds at Richmond, dwelling on the contrast- 
ing nights, — the setting sun had just sunk behind 
the roof of St. Paul's, and golden was the west, — 
I happened to look up as I drew near Crawford's 
celebrated monument of Washington. The rearing 
horse, staring with such manifest terror off over 
Richmond to the southwest, and Washington's 
long outstretched forefinger pointing along the 
charger's neck apparently to the same terrifying 
object, and lo! both directly toward Appomattox, I 
paused involuntarily, and the query rose: Wliat does 
the charger see, and what is the Great Virginian, 
the Father of our country, pointing to.f^ And there 
came a Voice hoarse and deep from the field of Lee's 
surrender, saying. He is pointing to me. I said to 
myself, as with downcast eyes I moved on, " What a 
prophetic analogue! and was the spirit of Jeremiah 
directing Crawford's hand.f^ " 

But before we dismiss the account of the evac- 
uation, there were two occurrences that night, 
which have the candles of history, and what is 
more, a noble human interest, burning brightly in 
them. 

The first was at the Danville railway station: 
and that we may note it, I will ask the reader 
to fancy that together we have crowded or wormed 
our way through the feverish multitude, till we are 
close to the cars in the dim, lamp-lit station. What 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 47 

a sea of distressed and needlessly alarmed men and 
women, — children are actually crying aloud, — 
swarming this way and that, are we in! The train, 
bearing Mr. Davis, the majority of his Cabinet, a 
car with a small amount of specie belonging to the 
Confederate treasury, and several coaches filled 
with Congressmen, distinguished personages, a clergy- 
man or two, — think of shepherds abandoning their 
flocks under such circumstances ! — and a few pale, 
sick and wounded officers and privates, has just 
left. 

Other trains to follow are made up, their loco- 
motives hoarsely sputtering, bursting into an im- 
patient roar at times that drowns the babel of voices. 
The sinewy, middle-aged engineer, bare-headed, is 
leaning out of his cab, one hand on the lever, watch- 
ing for the signal to be off; the young, smooth- 
faced fireman is ringing the bell, — how the scene 
must have lasted in his eyes, — and sentinels, with 
bayonets fixed, are holding the eager, pressing mob 
back from the car-steps, letting only those enter who 
are properly authorized by superior officers. 

But let us take a good look at that intent, ffinty- 
f aced, and sordid man, followed by a gang of slaves, 
who is forcing his way through the crowd into the 
presence of a sentinel. He represents the last of 
those creatures who dealt in his fellow mortals — 
at any rate that we have any knowledge of. Yes; 
take a good look at him, as at one of the wonders in 



48 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

an age of modern Christianity. His sorrowful-eyed 
slaves, male and female, left over from his last auc- 
tion (I hope for humanity's sake that there was not 
a little black child among them, clutching nervously 
its mother's hand), are halted, and look around 
bewildered while he demands passage for himself 
and them. 

The sentinel, a young man clad in gray, with that 
scornful and condemning look which the vocation 
of dealing in slaves naturally kindles, has brought 
his gun down, saying firmly as he bars approach to 
the cars, " Lumpkin " (for that was the dealer's 
name), " there is no room in these cars for you and 
your gang." The slave-dealer remonstrates in vain, 
his eyes shooting jBames of anger into the face of the 
stern, manly youth, and, at last, shamefully mutter- 
ing oaths, leads off his gang. Lumpkin having gone, 
— gone to this world's scrap-heap, — now scan the 
boy-sentinel's face well, for in the spirit of those 
words and that gesture he has made the last and by 
far the best argument before history's jury that the 
cause he loved and was willing to die for was not 
slavery. I do not know into what paths fate led 
him, nor the number of years that fell on him, but 
I will guarantee that when death overtook him, 
his spirit on its upward flight was met by a noble 
company, and that in the reveries of the Confederacy 
his memory is green and dear. 

The other occurrence is given in W. W. Black- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 49 

ford's Memoirs. And here I want to acknowledge my 
deep obligation to Mr. R. C. Blackford of Lynch- 
burg, Virginia, for authority to quote from the mem- 
oir his mother — and I have no doubt that she was 
of that sweet Virginia type, a type I know well, for 
my infant head rested on a Virginia mother's breast 
— published privately of her distinguished husband. 
And something tells me that my thanks will not 
travel to their destination alone, but that along with 
them will go, hand in hand, those of more than one 
reader. 

Blackford, an officer on duty in the War Depart- 
ment, was in St. Paul's and saw the delivery of the 
dispatch to Mr. Davis. On leaving the church he 
hurried to the office, learned that Lee's lines were 
broken and that the city was to be evacuated, and 
just before sundown left Richmond to report to 
Longstreet wheresoever he might find him. " The 
streets were full of scared people, ladies and gentle- 
men all in great distress but all powerless to accom- 
plish anything. I went down by Gamble's Hill. 
My slave Gabe, who was hired out under Dr. Morris 
in the Telegraph Department, as soon as he heard, 
came to my room to know what he must do. I 
told him he was free to do what he pleased and that 
he was as rich as I was; I should advise him to get 
work with the Yankees as soon as they came. He 
and John Scott (another slave) did all they could 
to make me comfortable. I left John in charge of 



50 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

our families and told him to come through the lines 
as soon as he could and join me at Longstreet's 
headquarters. Both went with me to the canal- 
boat. Gabe shed tears and kissed my hand when 
I told him good-bye and sent his love to his mistress 
Nannie. A more honest and faithful man never 
lived." 

What a solemn and telling reproach there is in 
this incident to the Abolitionists, who, in their 
antagonism to slavery as a denial of human 
rights, allowed a righteous enthusiasm to be con- 
verted into a personal, vindictive hatred of all 
slaveholders, which had its culmination in John 
Brown's attempt to bring about a San Domingo 
massacre. 

So, then, with Mr. Davis' train speeding on, and 
he, from his seat beside a window, looking out into 
the black night, ends Sunday at Richmond, and its 
people in terror, riot and tears. . 

Let us turn back, back to the Army of the Poto- 
mac, and tell what happened between the capture 
of Fort Gregg and sundown. Well, it was about two 
o'clock when the forts fell, and for the reasons al- 
ready given active operations against the inner 
line at that point were not taken. But while Gibbon's 
assault was going on, word came to Meade, that 
Miles had overtaken and encountered the Hatcher's 
Run line brigades, Cooke's, Scales', McRae's and 
McGowan's, entrenched at Sutherlands Station. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 51 

Meade at once started Humphreys to the support 
of Miles, but before he reached him, Miles attacked, 
and after three trials routed his opponents, capturing 
a number of prisoners and two guns. The defeated 
Confederates fled up the river, and R. H. Anderson, 
Lieutenant-General, at midnight, from his head- 
quarters at Namozine Church, sent word back to 
General Bushrod Johnson, that he had just received 
intelligence that the trains and troops ahead of his 
(Pickett's) were all stopped at Deep Creek by high 
water, and that Johnson on coming up should take 
the left-hand road. 

Meade, late in the afternoon, issued orders to as- 
sault at daylight, and directed that at the same hour 
a pontoon bridge be laid over the Appomattox several 
miles above Petersburg for Sheridan, the Fifth and 
Second corps to cross upon, in case Lee stayed in his 
lines and the assault should fail. 

When night fell it found the Army of the Potomac 
exultant, and there is no doubt when it lay down to 
rest that it slept well. The spring-time air was 
balmy, the peach and cherry trees were in bloom, 
in runs and swales the little frogs were piping, " and 
the turtle and the crane and the swallow were ob- 
serving the time of their coming," as of old; and 
perhaps, who knows, through the slumbering camps, 
dew faintly sparkling on guns and moistening youth- 
tinted cheeks, guardian angels whispered to each 
and all, " Sleep deep and sleep well; for Victory, 



52 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

great and final Victory, is drawing near." At any 
rate, when morning broke, the Army of Northern 
Virginia was gone, and the bridges over which it 
had crossed the Appomattox were on fire. 



VI 



And now, before the narrative sets off on its flight, 
if so I may speak of it, let me do what I can 
toward giving a bird's-eye view of the country that 
was traversed by the fleeing and the pursuing armies. 
And to this end, a map has been provided which 
I hope will be of some aid, to fix in the mind the 
relation of the places to each other as they are gained 
and left behind by the respective rapid-marching 
forces. A glance will show Petersburg and Rich- 
mond, from whence they started, the Army of the 
Potomac on the south, that of Northern Virginia 
on the north bank of the Appomattox, and Ap- 
pomattox Court-House, where on the following 
Sunday, the 9th, the marching was over and the 
torn flags were furled. The scene of their opera- 
tions, it will be observed then, begins where the Ap- 
pomattox enters the stately James, and ends where 
it rises an hundred miles or more away to the west 
among tall, arching ferns, blooming laurel, dogwood 
and azalias, at the feet of shouldering, oak-tim- 
bered hills that greet the morning sun. I hope the 
reader will take a good long look at the map, inas- 
much as I want him to feel at home with the roads 

53 



54 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

and localities as they are mentioned. Moreover, 
from every clearly conceived landscape there comes, 
from time to time, a note which strikes the myste- 
rious chords of our natures, and whose faint musical 
harmony the mind loves to be conscious of as it 
follows a narrative. 

And first let me call attention to the railroads. 
The Richmond and Danville (easily followed on the 
map — it was by this railway that Mr. Davis' 
train, leading several others, fled on that Sunday 
night) is intersected at Burkeville by the Norfolk 
and Western, known as the South Side road during 
the war on account of its location south of the Ap- 
pomattox, and which runs on by the field of the 
surrender to Lynchburg, and thence, having passed 
the beautiful Blue Ridge, winds its way through the 
Alleghanies to the Ohio. Burkeville is fifty-three 
miles from Richmond and fifty-one from Peters- 
burg; Danville, the goal of Lee's blasted hopes, is 
on the river Dan, 88 miles southwest of Burkeville. 

And now the country roads; those which Grant 
took south of the Appomattox are known as the Cox, 
and the River roads, leading, as will be seen, toward 
Amelia Court-House. Those Lee took on the north 
side of the river, the one nearest the Appomattox 
is known as the River, the others as the Hickory and 
Woodpecker roads. The former after awhile runs 
into the River road, which keeps on its way to 
Bevil's Bridge, the first on the river, and about thirty- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 55 

five miles above Petersburg, and tbence on to Amelia 
Court-House. The Woodpecker wends aimlessly 
westward and loses itself at last in dreamy roads 
much like itself, which mingle, some to go to sleep 
at Chesterfield Court-House, some in Richmond. 
From Richmond there are several roads bearing 
southward, among them, the historic Genito, which, 
as the map discloses, leads finally to a bridge of that 
name across the Appomattox. This is the one the 
bulk of Ewell's Richmond forces took. Between Be- 
vil's and Genito is Goode's Bridge on whose rumbling 
planks the Petersburg and Bermuda Hundred troops, 
the garrisons of the forts at Drewey's and Chaffin's 
Bluffs crossed the Appomattox. These, then, are the 
main roads and I think they remember the two 
armies well. They wind through much deep and 
pondering forest, cross many creeks and pleasant 
runs, and smile back on many old friends from 
clayey ridges, fields of wheat, tobacco and blading 
corn. 

The river itself from its very start curves often, 
has many stretches through woods where venerable, 
leaning trees, some tangled with wild grape-vines, 
almost meet each other over the flowing stream, 
and a prettier sight one cannot see when the 
grapes are ripening, and the redbird and the king- 
fisher and the blue winged jay streak with their 
colors October's golden woof. 

As the river runs on, it receives the waters, first 



56 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

on this side, and then on that, of many a deep, 
winding, tree-roofed, wood-duck-nesting creek and 
many a run, some large and some small, each having 
its glittering ripples and sober pools, the homes of 
dace, minnows and chub. Finally it comes in sight 
of Petersburg, tumbles over some rapids between low 
bluffs, and then calmly enters the James. Its long 
narrow water-shed is truly Virginian, the home and 
burial place of more than one distinguished family 
whose venerable mansions, for generations the abode 
of culture and warm, hearty, engaging hospitality, 
look at you now with saddened, pleading eyes. 

Mysteriously enough, besides the towering event 
on the upper Appomattox, this region witnessed 
another which cast the heaviest shadow that ever 
fell on any land, — the introduction of slavery by 
a Dutch man-of-war against the humane remon- 
strances of the first settlers at Jamestown. And 
lo ! after two hundred and fifty years, — years of 
brave and high-minded effort to found a republic, 
and years blessed with sweet peace, prosperity, and 
fraternal brotherhood, — it witnessed the deadly 
struggle which grew mainly out of that very sordid 
importation forced upon it in its infancy. These 
two waters, the James and Appomattox, draining 
the country which is the scene of this narrative, 
saw slavery's coming, and the Appomattox saw its 
ending; and both rivers will tell you now that they 
are glad it is gone. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 57 

In view of the fact that the names of officers. 
Confederate and Federal, will appear and reappear 
so often in the course of my story, I have wondered 
whether or not it would be of advantage to the reader 
to throw a rushlight as it were upon their person- 
alities; but most of them are of such renown, es- 
pecially Grant, Lee, Meade and Sheridan, and they 
have all been dealt with in so much detail by nu- 
merous writers, — including myself in The Battle 
of the Wilderness, — that it would be carrying coals 
to Newcastle to enlarge upon them here. More- 
over, I have a dread of repeating myself, and al- 
though I served with, saw, and knew most of them, 
I shall trust to the reader's imagination to portray 
them duly in the light of their deeds. 

On second thought, perchance the reader, like 
myself, is pleased, if not aided, by having as a side- 
light on great deeds the distinctive features of the 
actor's face, and so I will devote a line or two to 
Gordon and Parke, who, when I digressed, were 
contending so fiercely. 

Gordon, to whom more than to any one Lee owed 
the salvation of Petersburg that day, was a man of 
natural eminence. Above medium height, he had 
a soldier's port, raven-black hair, a noticeably deep 
scar across his left cheek, and as fierce and nearly 
cruelly blue eye as I ever looked into. His indom- 
itable courage was like Humphreys', who commanded 
our Second corps; and if there were ever hearths on 



58 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

this green earth at which valor and honor felt at 
home, they were theirs. 

Parke, a stocky built man, had smiling brown 
eyes, a low steep forehead, heavy jaw, wore side- 
whiskers, and about him was somewhat of the sub- 
dued air of scholarship, clothing his address and 
bearing in simple good manners. 

The leaders on both sides were much older than 
I, but the staffs of Grant, Meade, Sheridan and the 
most of our corps commanders were of my generation, 
and many of them I knew casually, and some I 
knew well. Their faces, blooming with youth, hang, 
here and there, on memory's walls, and, in the rev- 
eries of my old age, I sit and look at them. But they 
nor I were more than inconsequential shrubs in the 
landscape of events, and so, dear as their memories 
are to me, I will pass on. 

And now we have outlined the natural features of 
the narrative's channel, but before setting the pen's 
loom agoing to weave the story's fabric, damasked 
as it is with many contrasting figures, blasted hopes, 
and flowers of noble deeds, let us make as clear as we 
can the military situation of the Confederacy, so 
that the moves the two armies made may be fully 
understood. 

Adversity's winds had blown so hard and chill, 
by the spring of 1865, the Southern cause had only 
two armies left where hope could find a resting place, 
Lee's in Virginia, Johnston's in North Carolina. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 59 

And even that hope hung on the slender chance of 
the immediate and rapid concentration of those two 
armies, as soon as the roads would allow, and then 
their attack with the desperation of despair on Grant 
or Sherman as the case might be. 

That this concentration should be made and that 
the strategic moves to carry it out had been talked 
over more than once by Lee and Mr. Davis is most 
probable. But as Mr. Davis never had had much 
confidence in Johnston to accomplish anything, it is 
unlikely at this junction he expected him to with- 
draw his army safely from Sherman's front and join 
Lee. And I think Mr. Davis was right as to the latter, 
for had Johnston tried to escape, Sherman's crouch- 
ing and greatly outnumbering veterans, inured to 
fast and long marches, would have leaped upon 
and torn him to pieces before he had got fairly 
started. So then, if the concentration was to be made, 
Lee would have to try to join Johnston, and that he 
had determined to make the attempt as soon as the 
state of the roads would admit, is a well known fact. 
His plan was to steal away from the Petersburg and 
Richmond lines; all the troops around Petersburg, 
taking roads up the south side of the Appomattox, 
those in the Richmond lines to unite with them by 
crossing the river at convenient distances above 
Petersburg, and all to rendezvous at Burkesville, the 
junction of the South Side and Richmond and Dan- 
ville Railroads. That strategic point gained, the 



60 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

way was clear to Danville, where he hoped to find 
Johnston. 

Having settled upon this series of moves, the only 
disturbing question was, would Grant anticipate 
them and strike before he was ready to carry them 
out? But whensoever Grant should take the offen- 
sive, Lee knew that he would do one of two things, 
either try to break through the lines and end it then 
and there, or extend his left and seize the South 
Side Railroad. Of the two the one to the left was 
the most probable and altogether the most to be de- 
sired, for it cut off Lee's shortest and only true line 
of retreat. 

That Grant did not wait for the roads to settle 
is already known, and that after defeating Pickett 
at Five Forks he thrust the Fifth, Sixth and Twenty- 
fourth corps and all of Sheridan's cavalry across 
the South Side Railroad and thereby closed that 
line of Lee's retreat as completely as though a mon- 
ster steel door had swung across it. 

That being the state of affairs, Lee had no other 
line to take than the roads up the north bank of the 
Appomattox, and, as we know, them he took, directing 
all of his army to rendezvous at Amelia Court-House 
on the Richmond and Danville road, some twelve or 
fifteen miles this side of Burkeville. And the question 
was, what would Grant do, follow him, or strike at 
once for Burkeville, up the South Side Railroad, and 
try to put the Army of the Potomac across his way.?^ 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 61 

And now, I hope the situation and the reason for 
the moves that had been made are fairly clear to 
the reader, and if he will go back to the Sunday 
night after the capture of Forts Gregg and Baldwin 
I will tell him again where Meade's headquarters 
were, namely, at Wall's house on the Boydton plank 
road. And that night between him and Lee's inner 
line lay dreaming happily, I hope, the old Army of 
the Potomac which he had led so long. 

Lyman says, " About five in the morning heard 
Duane, chief of engineers on Meade's staff [the Duane 
mentioned in The Battle of the Wilderness] say out- 
side my tent, * They have evacuated the town; ' " and 
sure enough and safely enough, they had indeed. 

Grant rode into Petersburg and made his head- 
quarters at a large house owned by a Mr. Wallace, 
and at once sent orders for the Army of the Potomac 
to move with all possible dispatch toward Burke- 
ville; Ord and the Ninth corps to follow the rail- 
road, the Second, and Sixth corps to follow Sheridan 
and the Fifth on the River and Cox roads. At 
10:20 A. M. he renewed his orders to Sheridan, say- 
ing, " The first object of present movement will be 
to intercept Lee's army, and the second to secure 
Burkeville, Make your movements according to this 
programme." 

Mr. Lincoln, at City Point, hearing that Peters- 
burg had fallen, rode up to see Grant and thanked 
him and his army with a full heart for the results 



62 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

of the last few days. Grant about noon set off to 
follow his troops, who were marching with all speed 
up the south side of the river, and for the first time 
in its history, as it marched by the flower-sprinkled 
fields and woods (violets, liverwort, trilliums, 
and cowslips were abloom), every one of its battle- 
torn colors was unfurled. And in a book called 
Stories Told hy Soldiers, my friend. General Alfred 
A. WoodhuU of Princeton, writes, " As far as the 
eye could reach, the curving country road was vivid 
with the lively but not boisterous blue and steel." 
Not long ago, starting early on a beautiful October 
morning, I made a trip from Petersburg to Appo- 
mattox over the roads the Confederates took. As 
I crossed the rumbling Pocahontas Bridge a thin 
veil of mist hung just above the river, cows were 
feeding along its low banks, — one a large, creamy 
yellow with spreading white spots, — and in a 
clump of blushing willows a sparrow was singing. 
The road, having cleared the mild ascent to Ettricks, 
which overlooks Petersburg, leads on, bordered 
here and there by lonely, tapering cedars, its road- 
side fences, old and gray, masked by brushy thickets, 
and lit up now and then by blazing leaves of tangled 
vines; — on, by fields with peanuts and corn in 
shock, through woods and woods, and by old plan- 
tations still and solemn, the dreaming silence broken 
every once in a while by a cow-bell's Ming, klung. 
Hang, sometimes clear, sometimes faint, and by the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 63 

soft, pensively mellow notes of migrating bluebirds; 
— on and on toward Bevil's Bridge the road goes, 
over which the Army of Northern Virginia — our 
whole country's pride now — made its last fore- 
boding march that April morning, 1865. The road 
crosses many runs and creeks, some of such great 
beauty, that I stopped more than once and listened 
as they gurgled the soft music of their solitude. 

About twelve or fourteen miles from Petersburg, 
a farmer, of large frame and stately manners, whose 
freshly-painted white house with open door and 
blooming dahlias enlivens the lonely road, told me, 
in the course of a pleasant talk, that the van of the 
army reached there by daybreak; that from that 
time till the last one passed, his mother, with the serv- 
ants, was engaged in preparing food for the hun- 
gry numbers; that the dooryard and the adjacent 
young orchard and garden were full of men resting, 
and that as a group of horsemen went riding by, he, 
a boy of thirteen, heard the soldiers say, " There 
goes Marse Robert." 

And of the man whom this boy saw, Colonel Fre- 
mantle of the English army, who volunteered to serve 
for a time with Lee's army, says: " His [Lee's] cheeks 
were ruddy and his eyes had that clear light which 
indicates the presence of the calm, self-poised will. 
His beard and moustache, both grown gray, he 
wore short and well-trimmed, a gray uniform with 
no indication of rank save the stars on his collar. 



64 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

cavalry boots nearly to his knees, broad-brimmed 
gray, felt hat, which rested low on his forehead." 
Another who rode with him that morning says: 
" His seat in the saddle was erect and commanding, 
and he seemed to look forward to assured success 
in the critical movement which he had undertaken." 

What a scene for old age to dwell upon! And, 
since the alembic of a boy's love and admiration is 
so durable and active, how meagre and blighted 
would be the nature that would fail in its reveries, 
as that morning came back, to clothe every one of 
those earnest, poorly-clad, and hungry soldiers, 
as well as the cause they fought for, in raiments of 
Right and Glory. Yes, as we stood by the roadside 
and talked, — his hound was running a fox or a 
rabbit in the hazy timbered bottom below, — my 
stately friend thought that the army he saw that 
morning was fighting for the right, and was one to be 
proud of; and as to the last I certainly agreed with 
him. 

The forces he saw were Longstreet's valiant men. 
Gordon's were three or four miles to the north on the 
Hickory road, which, as has been said, comes into 
the road Longstreet was marching on some miles 
this side of Bevil's Bridge, where it crosses the Ap- 
pomattox. The head of the column, Longstreet's, 
on approaching the river found it a-flood and spread 
away out over its sombre wooded bottoms, prevent- 
ing all access to the bridge, so they had to strike 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 65 

for Goode's, the next above on the raging stream, 
which then, as always after a heavy rain, was 
roiled into the color of liquid brick-dust. Notwith- 
standing the long march and the frightful condition of 
the roads, — every stream, creek and run was bank- 
high and the mud churned into mortar by the trains, 
— Field's division of Longstreet's corps and Wil- 
cox's of Hill's reached Goode's by twilight and crossed 
over. 

Mahone, from the Bermuda Hundred lines, reached 
Chesterfield Court-House somewhat before 11 a. m. 
There at any rate Dr. Claiborne, senior surgeon of 
the Petersburg hospital, who under orders had 
left Petersburg the day before at 2 p. m., found him 
in line of battle. Mahone soon resumed his march 
and bivouacked some miles east of Goode's Bridge. 

Ewell's, Kershaw's and Custis Lee's columns, 
after a march of twenty-four miles, camped at 
Tomahawk Church, away off on the Genito Road, 
which runs southward from Richmond, crossing the 
Appomattox at Clementown. Darkness overtook 
Pickett and Anderson, who, it will be remembered, 
had fled up the south side of the Appomattox, 
beyond Deep Creek. There before their camp- 
fires, weary, scantily rationed, and disheartened 
they sat, for the news of the abandonment of Rich- 
mond had reached them with its depressing and 
prophetic significance. 

Lee himself bivouacked at Hebron Church, six 



66 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

miles north of Goode's Bridge, and at half-past six, 
concerned by learning that the pontoon which he 
had ordered to be laid at Genito, farther up the 
river, for the forces from the Richmond and James 
River lines to cross upon, had not been laid, sent a 
note by a courier to Ewell giving him the situation 
and directing him to move toward Goode's. 

This was the last unbroken night's sleep of the 
Army of Northern Virginia, and, as before my mind's 
eyes its veterans lie resting at random around scat- 
tered camp-fires, I pity them, knowing, as I do, what 
is to befall them. And, reader, so would you, had 
you in your youth contended for victory against them 
on the fields of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania. 
A Confederate War Department clerk, who stayed 
in Richmond, kept a diary, and in it recorded 
that there were millions of stars out that night. 
If so, they saw the troops in bivouac as we have 
placed them, and the heart of Richmond a desolate, 
smoking ruin, its streets deserted save by Weitzel's 
patrols and guards, its houses dark, curtains drawn 
and blinds closed, their inmates some in tears and 
all weighed down by bitter defeat. 

In contrast the stars saw New York, Philadelphia, 
and Boston lit up brilliantly and the streets packed 
with cheering multitudes. For the War Department 
had proclaimed the fall of Richmond, and ordered a 
salute of one hundred guns to be fired at each mili- 
tary post in honor of the event. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 67 

The news reached Boston about eleven a. m., 
Monday, and Governor Andrew telegraphed to the 
Secretary of War, Stanton, " Our people by a com- 
mon impulse abandon business to-day for thanks- 
giving and rejoicing." State Street was packed, 
the bells, including the Old North, rang for an hour 
at noon, and a salute was fired on the historic Com- 
mon. The next day, Tuesday, a meeting was held 
in Faneuil Hall, and above the clock was an arch 
bearing the legend, " Stand by the work of your 
fathers." " Work of your fathers! " which suggests 
that when the news of Cornwallis's surrender 
reached Richmond in 1783, it was made known by 
the watchmen on their beats calling out, " Past — 
twelve o'clock — a starlit night — and Lord Corn- 
wallis t-a-k-e-n! " 

The Governor of Illinois, Oglesby, notified Wash- 
ington: " We are firing salutes over the restoration 
of the Union, and the hearts of our people are throb- 
bing in unison with the reverberation of Grant's 
artillery. God bless Abraham Lincoln, E. M. Stan- 
ton, U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, Phil Sheridan, 
and the soldiers of the Union." 

In Philadelphia the State House bell clanged, all 
the fire engines came out, ringing their bells in front 
of Independence Hall; flags were waving, men em- 
braced each other, courts adjourned, and schools 
were dismissed, and cannon boomed till night. 

The theatres in all the large cities were crowded. 



68 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

boxes, balconies, and the stages decorated with 
flags and bunting, and as the orchestras played the 
national airs, wild and still wilder were the cheers. 

In the clubs of Boston, New York, and Philadel- 
phia, champagne flowed like water, and men could 
be heard singing long after the millions of stars were 
out, " We'll drink stone blind." Well might they 
cheer over the downfall of Richmond, and excused 
may they be for carousing in the clubs and hotels ; yet 
better far were the prayers of thankfulness made on 
bended knees by fathers and mothers in the dimly 
lighted homes on the farms in the North, for their 
country's deliverance, and for the prospect that their 
boys might be spared and come home. 

But, Army of Northern Virginia, sleep on! Long, 
long the Confederacy's star will hang over the 
Southland, but the day is coming when your children 
will rejoice in the reunited country's glory. More- 
over proud will it and they be of you and your valor; 
and, above all, in those trying times to come, of that 
display of willingness to lay your lives down for a 
political principle that is the very foundation on 
which our whole governmental system is based, 
namely, the Sovereignty of the States. Sleep on then 
around your smoldering fires: clanging bells of the 
North and sighs from home, may they not be borne 
to your ears through the vast hush of night, but, 
rather, the murmuring of the streams which flow 
through the fields and woods where you lie, and may 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 69 

you dream of Peace and see the land you love as it 
is to-day. And while they sleep, let us turn to the 
Army of the Potomac. It will be remembered that 
Grant at 10:20 a, m. Monday sent word to Sheridan 
that " the first object of the present movement will 
be to intercept Lee's army, and the second to secure 
Burke ville." 

Sheridan replied, — he did not get Grant's dis- 
patch till 1 : 45 p. M., — " Before receiving your dis- 
patch I had anticipated the evacuation of Peters- 
burg and had commenced moving west. My cavalry 
is nine miles beyond Namozine Creek, and is press- 
ing the enemy's trains. I shall push on to the Dan- 
ville Road as rapidly as possible." 

Spurred on by their chief's contagious intensity, 
his cavalry dogged the retreating Confederates 
fiercely throughout the livelong day. At four p. m. he 
sent word to Grant, — Sheridan was then at Nam- 
ozine Church, — " The enemy threw their ammuni- 
tion on the sides of the road and into the woods, 
and then set fire to the fences and woods through 
which the shells were thrown. The woods are 
strewn with burning and broken-down caissons, 
ambulances, wagons and debris of all descriptions. 
Up to this hour we have taken about twelve hundred 
prisoners of A. P. Hill's corps, and all accounts re- 
port the woods filled with deserters and stragglers." 

When night fell, that flaming and relentless 
soldier had his headquarters at the home of a Mrs. 



70 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Cousins on the left-hand side of the road leading to 
Amelia Court-House, having covered at least half 
the way to Jetersville, the point on the Richmond 
and Danville railway, where he hoped to head off Lee. 
His cavalry, the troopers of the valley, now joyous 
and confident, were some miles in advance at Deep 
Creek, a sluggish stream. Behind our cavalry lay 
the Fifth corps and, stretching away behind it on 
the Namozine River Road, was Humphreys with 
the Second, and then the Sixth. Ord, followed by 
Parke, had taken the South Side Railroad and was 
bivouacking at Wilson's Station, while Grant and 
Meade had pitched their headquarter tents at 
Sutherlands Station, where Cooke's, Scales', McRae's 
and McGowan's brigades of Hill's corps, cut off 
from falling back on Petersburg, were overtaken and 
overthrown Sunday afternoon by Miles of Hum- 
phreys' Second corps. 

At eight o'clock, possibly about the hour Lee at 
Hebron Church was wording his note to Ewell, 
Sheridan was writing his orders to the unpretentious, 
big-hearted Crook to move at three, and to the tall, 
surly-looking, and stalking-gaited Griffin to move 
at 5 a. m., for Jetersville, a station named in honor 
of a celebrated Baptist clergyman, about half-way 
between Burkeville and Amelia Court-House. 

Such then is the first day, Monday, April 3rd, of 
the retreat and the pursuit, and now let us give 
Tuesday's important record. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 71 

The courier, whom Lee sent to Ewell, rode all 
night but could not find him ; and on regaining head- 
quarters, the general made this postscript to the 
communication, and started it on its way again : — 

" April 4, 7 :30 a. m. The courier has returned 
with this note, having been able to hear nothing of 
you. I am about to cross the river. Get to Amelia 
Court-House as soon as possible, and let me hear 
from you. R. E. L." 

As it is not more than nine or ten miles from 
Goode's Bridge to Amelia, Lee must have cov- 
ered the distance by half-past eight at the latest, 
and there his hopes met a staggering blow, for to 
his utter consternation he found not a single ration 
for man or beast. On reporting his surrender six 
days later to Mr. Davis, Lee said, " Not finding the 
supplies ordered to be placed there, nearly twenty- 
four hours were lost in endeavoring to collect sub- 
sistence for men and horses. This delay was fatal." 

Lee, when he made this statement, must have had 
in mind his orders to Ewell already mentioned, but 
the Confederate Commissary-General, General St. 
John, says that " by this time [that is, the receipt 
of Ewell 's instructions] it was too late for action 
as all the railroad transportation had then been 
taken by superior orders for the archives, bullion 
and other government service then deemed of prime 



72 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

importance." Lee, little dreaming of the panic 
that would sweep Richmond on hearing that he was 
to abandon it that night, relied on his orders to 
Ewell conveying, as they did, their importance at 
once to every one acquainted with the necessities 
of an army. But had he a right to expect that 
Ewell could comply with his orders amid the con- 
fusion incident to a hurried evacuation .^^ There is 
one thing certain, however: it would have been a 
stroke of genius on Lee's part had he foreseen the 
panic and ordered the supplies from Danville, whose 
storehouses were crammed with them. 

But the Commissary-General is not entirely 
blameless — he, of all men, knew Lee's scant supply 
in the trains, and when he found that he could not 
send any from Richmond, he should have wired 
his subordinates in Danville to start trains at once 
to Lee's army. It only adds another and striking 
proof of the panic which seized the authorities in 
Richmond, from high to low, and leads one to sus- 
pect that each was thinking of his own personal 
safety, and not of the wants of the hard-tried vet- 
erans. 

After the war was over and the calamitous nature 
of the consequences, due as alleged by Lee, were 
realized, Mr. Davis' malignant Southern critics 
tried to lay the blame on his shoulders. But in his 
history of The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, he 
establishes beyond dispute that no orders or even 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 73 

suggestions had ever come from Lee for supplies to 
be collected at Amelia. 

Lee pitched his headquarters in the dooryard 
of a house occupied by a Mrs. Smith, a refugee from 
Alexandria, — so we are told by that gallant Con- 
federate officer. Captain Frederick M. Colston of 
Baltimore. 

The town itself is of the sleepy old Virginia type, 
its houses unpretentious and its streets unpaved, 
varying kinds of paling and board fences enclose the 
door yards, some of which are enlivened by clumps 
of flowers and bending rose bushes in bloom, and 
now and then a sweetly breathing honeysuckle 
clambers affectionately over a porch wmdow. 

In the centre of the little town is a square or 
common of uneven ground. On the east side of it 
stands the Court-House. Off the square is an old- 
fashioned, rambling stage tavern, and across the 
street in front of it, a row of large old oaks, some with 
dying tops. From the tavern's broad porch the 
eye can sweep surrounding farms, where here and 
there a man is ploughing, and flocks are grazing 
or resting under the shade of trees in sloping fields. 
The railway station is right near the tavern and 
about midnight, when I was there, a passenger train 
from Richmond came thundering by. I could see 
its lighted cars from my window, reminding me of 
Mr. Davis' flight when about that hour he left Rich- 
mond. 



74 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

In the centre of the square is a Confederate mon- 
ument with the inscription: 

"AMELIA'S LOVING TRIBUTE TO HER 
HEROES OF 1861 TO 1865. 

THEY BRAVELY FOUGHT, 
THEY BRAVELY FELL, 
THEY WORE THE GREY, 
THEY WORE IT WELL. 

COMRADES, WHERESOEVER YOU REST APART, 
AMELIA SHRINES YOU HERE, WITHIN HER HEART." 

Yes, quiet, deep quiet, reigns in the old shire town 
as it dreams of the days when Lee and the Army of 
Northern Virginia trod its streets. 

When I was there last October, no troops worn 
down with hunger and fatigue, no jaded horses with 
staring eyes, drooping heads, and panting flanks, no 
trains, guns, or cavalry, met my eye. A saddle- 
horse or two stood, tied, dozing before a store, 
a group of little girls wended their way to school, 
and intermittently a mocking-bird, in a locust tree 
with a blasted top, trilled joyously, and the church 
spires looked up into a cloudless sky. 

That Tuesday, April 4, 1865, must have been a 
long and harassing day to Lee. A drizzling rain was 
falling, and wet, tired, and famishing troops, cav- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 75 

airy, artillery, and infantry, were pouring in every 
hour, and all dumbfounded at not getting the sup- 
phes which they had been told would meet them 
there. Great was their disappointment, and grounds 
for complaint were abundant, but so far as I can 
learn there was nothing like mutiny or even fault- 
finding, and their conduct testifies convincingly of 
their deep and steadfast loyalty both to Lee and to 
their cause. 

It was late in the afternoon before the rear of the 
divisions of Field, Wilcox, and Heth came up, but 
all with courage unshaken. Longstreet formed them 
in lines of battle east of the town, looking for a chance 
to strike the heads of our pursuing columns, which 
he imagined to be immediately in the rear of Mac- 
kenzie's cavalry, who were making a bold and per- 
sistent attack. 

Anderson, Wise, and Pickett, were in ragged, de- 
moralized lines along the Bevil's Bridge road east 
of Amelia. They had been protected in their re- 
treat from Deep Creek by Fitz Lee's and W. H. F. 
Lee's cavalry, but had been attacked vigorously by 
Merritt and Custer capturing guns and prisoners, 
the roads strewn with arms and abandoned wagons 
and the woods full of stragglers. Mackenzie, who 
had crossed Deep Creek higher up, pushed back 
everything before him to within a mile or so of 
Amelia. 

The positions of the troops, and the progress his 



76 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

army had made in concentrating at Amelia, are in- 
dicated by a letter dated at nine o'clock p. m., which 
Lee wrote to Ewell, saying that he was very much 
gratified to learn of his, E well's, favorable prospect of 
crossing the river at Mattoax, on the railway bridge 
over the Appomattox; that he hoped he was safely 
over by that time, — the last of the column, how- 
ever, did not cross till after midnight, — that Gordon, 
who had brought up the rear of the Petersburg 
forces, was at Scott's shop, which is about midway 
from Goode's to Amelia, and that Mahone was 
between Gordon and the bridge. 

That had been a trying day for Lee, and it must 
have been late when his head touched the pillow; 
and whether he slept or not, it was an awful and 
eventful night. Let the truth, and whole truth, be 
known. Darkness had barely set in when the Army 
of Northern Virginia, the army of Gaines' Mill, 
Second Manassas, Antietam, Chancellorsville and 
Gettysburg, began to melt away. " At morning 
roll-call," says the historian of a Richmond battery, 
" a number of men did not answer to their names." 
" The men," says the diary of Creed T. Davis, pub- 
lished in the Richmond Howitzer, " as they leave 
Richmond believe that the cause is gone and desert 
in great numbers. At least fifteen men have left 
our company." Nearly a whole company of the 
Ninth Virginia Cavalry left the army on the night 
of the fourth and fifth, so it is recorded in the regi- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 77 

ment's history; and there is but little doubt that 
all through the lone hours, singly, and in squads, 
men were shoaling away toward home that Tuesday 
night. A member of Fitzhugh Lee's division of 
cavalry tells us that, on reaching the village the 
following morning, Wednesday, " I beheld the first 
signs of dissolution of that grand army which had 
endured every hardship of march and camp with 
unshaken fortitude, when looking over the hills I 
saw swarms of stragglers moving in every direction." 

The main reason for this abandonment of the 
colors is not far to seek. With the fall of Richmond, 
hunger and want, which had long been the grim com- 
panions of the army, were joined by two figures 
that had dogged it from the Wilderness, and whose 
footsteps had been heard growing nearer and nearer 
since leaving Petersburg. Suddenly, as the sense 
came over them that the cause was lost, the poorly 
clad and half-starved veterans found themselves 
looking into the hard, glaring eyes of the Inevitable 
and the Inexorable; and that look for many was de- 
cisive. There were other reasons, too, the cries from 
home, cries that grew louder and keener at every 
step they took bearing them farther away. 

Reader, if you and I, worn out, spirits low from 
want of sleep and food, and convinced of certain 
defeat and probable imprisonment, had been in 
their places, I wonder what we should have done. 
Would it have been Duty's call or the cry from home 



78 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

that would have determined our course? Well, it 
might have been the former; if so, God bless you, 
and here is my hand; but it might have been the 
latter too, for, like yourself, they were brave 
men. So let us be charitable to those who through 
the dark, mist-shrouded fields and woods stole away, 
and whose guns were found, some standing upright 
in the field with bayonets thrust into the rain-soaked 
ground, some leaning against fences, others against 
the trunks of trees. The haversacks and equipments 
which these men had borne with great valor on many 
a field were scattered here, there, and everywhere; 
now and then one was left dangling on a bough, in 
testimony of the wearer's affection. It was told 
me that a cavalryman or cannoneer, — I have for- 
gotten which, — after leaving his horse that night, 
stumbled on a shock of fodder, picked up an armful 
and carried it back to his dumb companion, and when 
death came, not as a toil but as a high privilege, I 
suspect, the horses drew his hearse, for he had been 
kind to one of their race. But how about those 
who stood faithful .f^ Garlands, garlands, for every 
one of them, say I. 

When the morning of the second day of the pur- 
suit (Tuesday) broke, Meade took the road Sheridan 
was on, and Grant went with Ord, who was aiming 
for Burkeville. It was a heavily overcast and driz- 
zling day, the rain at times breaking into showers, 
drenching men, fields, and woods. I am inclined to 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 79 

think that that day, and the day which followed it, 
were the crucial days of the campaign. Speed now 
was everything, but the streams rose and had to be 
bridged, the water stood in pools in the low places 
and tussocky swales, and the mud in the road deep- 
ened, so that the wheels were up to the hub, and it 
was almost impossible to move the trains, which in 
their hurry had doubled up, the poor exhausted, 
floundering animals blocking the way. Miles and 
miles had to be corduroyed for them; but on, re- 
gardless of weather, the water spurting from their 
shoes at every step, and rain dripping from the 
soaked brims of their hats, went the gallant infantry. 
Never, never did coming events so breathe on an 
army as on the Army of the Potomac that day. 
Some time about noon the news came that Rich- 
mond had fallen, that the stars and stripes were 
waving over the capitol, and the columns broke into 
long and mighty cheers, that rang through woods 
and fields. 

Sheridan, meanwhile, was hastening the brave, 
simple-hearted Crook on to Jetersville, the most 
important strategic point of the whole campaign. 
It is a station on the Danville railroad about midway 
between Burkeville and Amelia. Lee had to pass 
through Jetersville if his plans were to succeed. 
Crook reached there about three in the afternoon, 
and threw his division across the road, interrupting 
a stream of men, hungry and low-spirited, fleeing 



80 THE SUNSET OF THE COKFEDERACY 

homeward from Lee's army. In seizing the station 
Crook captured telegraphic dispatches from Lee's 
chief commissary at Ameha, ordering 200,000 ra- 
tions to be sent there from Danville, also dispatches 
for forage, etc. Sheridan, himself, joined his able 
division commander about five p. m., and by the time 
the sun was setting. Griffin, lean and grim as an old 
eagle, having marched nearly thirty miles, came in 
sight, taking position on the right and left of the 
cavalry, and at once went to work throwing up a 
line of breastworks. 

While these moves of Sheridan, so fatal to Lee, were 
being made, Mackenzie, Merritt, and Custer, my 
friends of cadet days, all now asleep, God bless their 
ashes, were crowding Anderson, Pickett, Wise, 
Heth and Fitzhugh Lee back with such vigor on 
Amelia that Lee thought that all the infantry of the 
Army of the Potomac was right behind them, and, 
as already told, arrayed his forces, under the valiant 
Longstreet, to meet them, losing thereby most val- 
uable time. 

Meanwhile Meade's and Ord's columns were 
pushing on, Meade's following Sheridan, Ord's the 
road to Burke ville. At seven o'clock p. m., the storm 
had passed, and while the glittering constellations 
were marching into the overarching dome, Sheridan 
wrote to Meade, from Jetersville: 

" The rebel army is in my front, three miles dis- 
tant, with all its trains. If the Sixth corps can hurry 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 81 

up we will have sufficient strength. I will hold my 
ground unless I am driven from it. I understand 
that Humphreys is just after the Fifth corps. My 
men are out of rations, and some rations should 
follow quickly. Please notify General Grant. 

" P. S. The enemy are moving from Amelia 
Court-House via Jetersville and Burke's Station to 
Danville. Jeff Davis passed over this railroad yester- 
day to Danville." 

At the same time he sent orders for Merritt, then 
off confronting Anderson and Pickett on the Bevil's 
Bridge road, to come in all haste to Jetersville. 
Merritt arrived there the next morning at seven a. m. 

Sheridan's dispatch reached Meade's headquarters 
at the house of a Mr. Jones, on the east side of Deep 
Run. He was quite unwell, and after it had been 
read to him he retired, but soon sent for Sheridan's 
staff officer, the brave Colonel Newhall, who had 
brought the dispatch, and asked him as to the sit- 
uation and what Sheridan said about it. In effect 
Newhall's report was that Lee could be balked, and 
if Meade would forsake everything but arms and 
ammunition and at any sacrifice hurry forward and 
join Sheridan, Lee would have to surrender. Meade 
at quarter of eleven forwarded Sheridan's dispatch 
to Grant, who was in camp at Wilson's Station 
on the South Side Road, with Ord, telling him that 
Humphreys was partly across the run, that his men 
were out of rations, had been moving, working on 



82 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

the roads, and standing for fourteen hours, — the 
cavalry on the right had cut across to the left, inter- 
cepting his march during the afternoon, — but that 
in a general order for Humphreys and all the troops 
to move at three a. m. he had said, — 

" The Major-General commanding feels he has 
but to recall to the Army of the Potomac the glorious 
success of the oft-repeated gallant contests with 
the Army of Northern Virginia, and when he assures 
the army that, in the opinion of so distinguished an 
officer as General Sheridan, it only requires these 
sacrifices to try and bring the long and desperate 
conflict to a triumphant issue, the men of this army 
will show that they are willing to die of fatigue and 
starvation as they have ever shown themselves 
ready to fall by the bullets of the enemy." 

When, after midnight, the tired, wet, and hungry 
men were aroused by the pealing bugles and heard 
Meade's order, they broke into cheers and took up 
the line of march. And that on this narrative may 
fall the glow of the spirit of the army, and for the 
sake of the chords of sympathy which bind us all, 
let it be told that men whose shoes had given out 
wrapped cloths around them and, smiling over their 
own appearance, at the command, " Forward! " 
stepped off with their comrades. Others, who were 
wounded, refused to stay in the hospitals, and re- 
joined their regiments, nursing their wounds only 
when the troops halted. We cannot account for this 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 83 

inspiring zeal and fortitude unless we realize that 
up and down the high valleys of the mind God's 
heralds were blowing their trumpets; trumpets 
that stir the hearts of men and have been heard down 
the ages, and lo! the generations had prophets, re- 
ligion, literature, poetry, and glory. And here ends 
Tuesday, the second day of the pursuit. 

In view of the fact that the safety of the Confed- 
erate Army depended on its line of retreat remaining 
unobstructed, Sheridan fully expected Lee would 
spring at him as soon as the news reached him that 
the pursuit had reached Jetersville; but, morning 
having broken, the sun mounting upward on its way 
and Lee still not moving, Sheridan determined to find 
out what his famous and dangerous adversary was 
up to, and sent Davies' brigade of cavalry on a re- 
connaissance to Lee's right. 

At Paineville, five or six miles west of Amelia, 
Davies struck a train, several miles long, of wagons 
and artillery headed toward Farmville. He at- 
tacked it impetuously, destroying several hundred 
wagons, capturing five pieces of artillery, eleven 
battle flags, and a number of prisoners. This train 
of Custis Lee's division had crossed the Appomattox 
at Clementown, and was the only one in the re- 
treating army fully equipped with supplies of all 
kinds. Fitzhugh Lee, Dearing, Rosser and Gary 
fell on Davies as he withdrew, striking him with 
desperation, but Sheridan sent several brigades of 



84 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

cavalry to Davies' aid and he was able to bring in 
about all of his telltale captures, but in doing so 
lost some of his best men, among them the young, 
heroic Colonel Janeway of New Jersey; the Con- 
federates lost a number of very brave oflBcers, too. 
Shortly after the return of Davies a negro was 
intercepted, bearing a brief note given him by a 
Confederate ofScer, and was taken to Sheridan. The 
letter ran as follows, — 

" Amelia Court House, 
" April 5, 1865. 
" Dear Mamma: Our army is ruined, I fear. We 
are all safe as yet. Shyron left us sick. John Taylor 
is well; saw him yesterday. We are in line of battle 
this evening. General Robert Lee is in the field 
near us. My trust is still in the justice of our cause 
and that of God. General Hill is killed. I saw Mur- 
ray a few moments since. Bernard Terry [he] said 
was taken prisoner, but may get out. I send this 
by a negro I see passing up railroad to Mecklenburg. 
Love to all. 

" Your devoted son, 

" Wm. B. Taylor, 

" Colonel." 

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh, and it is easy to read in this letter the 
despair that had come over the Army of Northern 
Virginia. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 85 

While Davies was on his way to Paineville, Lee, 
desiring to free himseK of the burden of the surplus 
artillery, ordered the destruction of nearly a hundred 
caissons and directed the pieces to take the road to 
Farmville, tlie column being under the command of 
Gen. Lindsay Walker. 

It was not until one o'clock Wednesday, the 5tli, 
tliat Lee moved; then, with Longstreet by his side, 
he put himself at the head of the infantry — Ewell's 
and Custis Lee's columns had not yet reported 
— and started for Jetersville determined to clear 
the road of what he supposed to be a brigade or at 
most a division of cavalry. Jetersville is some eight 
or ten miles southwest of Amelia. The highway and 
railway which connect the towns run side by side, 
first one and then the other crossing each other. 
Both, for the most of the way, run through old, 
slumbering woods of pine and oak with sunshiny 
open spots where the solitary pokeweed spreads its 
branches and scattered purple asters bloom, the 
speaking heralds of autumn's dreams. 

W. H. F. Lee's division of Confederate cavalry 
preceded the infantry, which, on approaching Jeters- 
ville, found itself plump up against Sheridan's 
breastworks, and over them they could see the colors 
of the Fifth corps flying. Of course the Confederate 
cavalry was not long in finding out that if the road 
was to be cleared, the infantry would have to do it, 
so Longstreet came up and formed Field's, Wilcox's 



86 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

and Heth's divisions for assault. But no one sent 
to reconnoitre Sheridan's lines brought back a single 
hope of carrying them; they were too grimly strong, 
and, moreover, the stiff bearing on the part of the 
skirmishers in front of them told the story of what 
the attacking soldiers would meet from the men be- 
hind them; in other words, that Sheridan was ready 
to play the desperate game of battle. Sheridan in his 
report of the campaign says, " It seems to me that 
this was the only chance the Army of Northern 
Virginia had to save itself, which might have been 
done had General Lee promptly attacked and driven 
back the comparatively small force opposed to him 
and pursued his march to Burke ville Junction." If 
all of Lee's army had been there, I have no doubt he 
would have assaulted. 

Alexander says that a long conference was held 
between Lee and his son, W. H. F., and Longstreet. 
I suspect the question to have been, whether or not 
the whole of the Army of the Potomac was before 
them, and that Lee could not conceive it possible 
that it should be there; but he did not know what a 
spirit of resistance to fatigue and hunger inspired 
the Army of the Potomac now that the end was near. 
As a matter of fact, Humphreys at that very hour 
was going into line at the right and left of Griffin, 
but the Sixth corps was four or five miles away, 
though coming on at full speed. 

At last Lee's fighting spirit had to yield and he 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 87 

decided to take the only course that was left, namely, 
to move during the night toward Rice's Station on 
the Lynchburg road, nine miles west of Burkeville. 
The baffling of his plans he owed to Sheridan, who 
that day, and on to Appomattox, was the lion in his 
way. 

Longstreet tells us that " no orders came, the 
afternoon was passing, further delay seemed perilous, 
I drew the command off and filed to the right to 
cross Flat Run to march to Farmville. The in- 
fantry, trains, and artillery followed, and kept the 
march up until a late hour." 

Lee turned Traveller back and bivouacked at 
Amelia Springs. I do not know how the great 
man felt that night, — there was reason for gloom : 
no rations at Amelia Court-House! Grant squarely 
across his way to Burkeville ! — and I have wondered 
if as he gazed into his camp-fire he heard the knell 
of his hopes. But I trust his tent was pitched in an 
open oak wood, that the ground sloped away gently, 
that now and then through the tree tops he 
caught sight of friendly stars, that every south wind 
breathed sweetly, and that sleep fell softly and kindly 
over his thwarted, troubled mind. 

Let us turn to his pursuers on that Wednesday, 
the 5th. Humphreys' Second corps, that had biv- 
ouacked on the west bank of Deep Creek, moved 
between one and two o'clock a. m., and without food; 
Meade's orders were to march at three a. m. Wright's, 



88 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

on the road, in rear of Humphreys, left their burned 
down camp-fires as soon as Humphreys' bugles to 
resume the march were heard, and at seven a. m., 
about the hour the sun was clearing the tree tops, 
got to Deep Creek. 

Humphreys, although delayed by Merritt's di- 
vision of cavahy on its way to report to Sheridan, 
reached Jetersville at half-past three, as we already 
know, while Lee was debating with himself whether 
to attack or not. 

About six p. M. the advance of the ever gallant 
Sixth corps with flags unfurled which it had carried 
on so many fields, bore up to Jetersville, marching 
strongly. 

Meade, although still unwell from cough and fever, 
pushed ahead of Humphreys and Wright and rode 
out to see Sheridan and Griflin. The former, when 
Meade arrived, was with his cavalry helping to 
drive back the enemy which had pursued and at- 
tacked Davies so viciously. On Sheridan's return 
about half-past six, Meade dined with him at his 
headquarters, the Childres house, and later in the eve- 
ning ordered a general attack at six a. m. the next 
morning. 

Grant had accompanied Ord, who was following 
the railroad to Burkeville, and at five p. m., about the 
hour probably when Longstreet started his trains 
and artillery toward Rice's Station, notified Meade 
as follows: 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 89 

" Ord has covered fifteen miles to-day to reach here 
[Nottaway Coui-t-House] and is going on. He will 
probably reach Burkeville to-night. My headquar- 
ters will be with the advance. 

" U. S. Grant, 

" Lieutenant General." 

At three o'clock Sheridan sent a dispatch to 
Grant, reporting Da vies 's operations, adding, " I 
wish you were here yourself. I feel confident of 
capturing the Army of Northern Virginia if we exert 
ourselves. I see no escape for Lee." With this 
dispatch he enclosed the captured letter from Col. 
Wm. B. Taylor, already given. 

Toward sundown Sheridan's intrepid and more- 
than-once-tried scout, Campbell, wearing the uniform 
of a Confederate officer, his horse in a lather, emerged 
from the woods on the right of Ord's marching 
column and, on being taken to Grant, handed him 
Sheridan's dispatch, written on tissue paper and 
rolled up in a pellet covered with tinfoil. Grant 
as soon as he read it dismounted — he was riding 
"Jeff Davis," a middle-sized, stocky, black pony; 
those who served at headquarters will remember the 
fast-pacing little fellow well — and, with the saddle 
for a rest, wrote a message to Ord. He then mounted 
Cincinnati, his high, thoroughbred bay, — how 
proudly he stood, ears alert, that first day at 
Spottsylvania when his rider and all headquarters 



90 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

were under fire, — and, witli Campbell in the lead, 
set off for Sheridan, now through dark, tangled woods, 
now up narrow lanes, now across fields by lone barns, 
on past unlighted houses where the watch dog alone 
was awake, and, once more, across gray, night- 
mantled fields for Jetersville. " I wish you were here 
yourself," Sheridan had said, and that was enough; 
no distance, fatigue, or darkness could be so great or 
so deep as to stay the quiet and mighty-hearted 
Grant from answering the call. 

It was well past ten o'clock when he reached Sher- 
idan at the Childres house near the railroad, and, 
after hearing how things stood, sent a note to Meade 
saying, " I would go over to see you this evening 
but I have ridden a long distance to-day. Your 
orders directing an attack to-morrow morning will 
hold in the absence of others, but it is my impression 
that Lee will retreat during the night and, if so, we 
will pursue with vigor." 

That Lee withdrew as Grant predicted, we al- 
ready know. And now we hope that after all that 
day's work was done, this modest, true, magnani- 
mous man had, as well as Lee and Grifl5n, a bed under 
towering oaks; that sleep, sweet sleep, came to him 
as I trust it came to them, and that every night wind 
breathed of the days to come, and he saw visions of 
his country moving upward in splendor and glory. 



VII 

The road from Amelia Springs by which the weary, 
sleep-longing, hungry, yet dauntless Confederate 
army moved toward Rice's Station and Farmville 
is narrow, winding, and lonely; one that never before 
that fatal day had seen a battle-flag, heard the clat- 
tering march of cavalry or felt the heavy tread and 
jar of thundering guns. Nor had it ever dreamed of 
the sounds it was to hear before the sun went down; 
hear amid the terrible din of battle the shriek of dis- 
emboweled horses, the piercing cries of the wounded, 
and the faint, intermittent, muttering, delirious 
speech of the dying. No, it had heard the voices 
of Peace only: care-free negroes singing in adjacent 
fields as they ploughed, hoed, and stacked the ripened 
grain (oh, sweet and long are the shadows when the 
sheaves of wheat are shocked). Wagons chuckling 
happily under their loads, tobacco and cotton to the 
market, wheat and corn to the mill; carriages rolling 
softly to and from the country churches, and now and 
then the natural glee of a light-hearted, whistling boy. 
It is bordered for long reaches by unfenced woods of 
soothing pines and brushy oaks, which rise above a 

dense undergrowth. On leaving Amelia Springs it 

91 



92 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

shuns the frequent tributaries of Flat Creek by swerv- 
ing around their swampy heads up among billowing, 
cultivated uplands creased by many ravines, the 
cradles of living streams, along whose thickety 
banks wild plums and azaleas bloom and redbirds 
build their nests. 

The soaking rains of a few days past had made the 
road very soft, and the heavy trains and cavalry 
soon so cut up the low places that they were al- 
most impassable. It is tiresome enough to march 
all night on good broad roads, but from marching 
over a narrow one like this, crowded with stalled 
trains, and packed with men whose hearts are bowed 
down, spare us, spare us, good Lord ! 

So, through fields alternating with woods, the road 
goes on, and after a while comes to Deatonsville, a 
hamlet of three or four houses. There, after cross- 
ing the historic Genito Road, one of Virginia's oldest 
highways, it loiters along as before till it gets well 
over a shallow sandy creek flowing northward, 
when it bends southwestward. About a mile and a 
half this side of Sailor's Creek, another road — I have 
called it Gordon's for reasons that will appear later 
— sets off to the right, running northwest, skirting 
the creek's wavering valley until almost within 
sight of the Appomattox, when it turns abruptly to- 
ward the setting sun and, plunging down into the 
valley, crosses the creek at a bridge and several 
fords. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 93 

The main road, after Gordon's leaves it, changes 
a little more to the westward and soon, through its 
bordering woods, catches the light of Captain 
Hillsman's Plantation, which slopes into the narrow 
valley of Sailor's Creek. The Captain, by the way, 
a quiet, pleasing man, was in the 44th Virginia and 
captured when we carried the Bloody Angle of 
Spottsylvania. Just before reaching the house, the 
road passes on the left hand, and I think reveren- 
tially, the old graveyard where lie the gallant Cap- 
tain's ancestors under moaning pines, then by the 
dooryard it goes down into the creek's shelving, 
scored-out valley, which, from bluff to bluff, if the 
shouldering sides may be called bluffs, is six or eight 
hundred yards wide. The stream itself is at the 
extreme western side of the narrow valley and is not 
large or deep, but has very miry banks planted 
densely with willow, wild rose, and alder, cowslips 
in spring-time gilding its margins richly. At the 
time of the retreat it was high and well out of its 
treacherous banks. 

The road crosses it on a low, rickety, pole bridge 
opposite the mouth of a considerable ravine which 
reaches up to the timber on the west side, the birth- 
place of a cherished little brook that comes singing 
down to the creek. The road, having crossed, turns 
to the left, and at once begins to mount diagonally 
the long, sharply rising left bank; scattered on 
each side are wild plums and young pines whose roots 



94 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

are beneath quilts of daisies and broom grass, which 
were stained that afternoon by much rare and gallant 
blood. 

If you look backward over your shoulder as you 
mount the bank, the valley of the creek, and the 
old Hillsman homestead, with its big chimney and 
venerable dooryard, evergreens, and all the sloping 
fields of the plantation, greet your eye. Having 
gained the top of the ridge, the road wanders on in a 
forest stippled with dogwoods and now and then 
blazing with an azalea, to Rice's Station, some four 
or five miles away. 

Before reaching the station it crosses another 
Sailor's Creek, called the Big Sailor, and then winds 
around the heads of many deep, black gulches which. 
Captain Hillsman told me, as we drove by them, 
are known as the Devil's Tavern. A road from 
Gill's Mill, on the creek above Captain Hillsman's, 
comes into the Rice's Station road several miles 
west of Hillsman's. Wood and plantation roads, 
some leading to Vaughn's below Hillsman's and some 
off toward High Bridge on the Appomattox, take their 
departure from time to time from the Rice's Station 
road. 

Perhaps we have dwelt with too much particularity 
and too long on this road. But that was a crucial 
day of the war, and on this road as a whole, and for 
the last time, marched the Army of Northern 
Virginia. Here, too, as the sun was going down. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 95 

the Confederacy, under Sheridan's mortal wounds, 
sighed out its last hope. Moreover, this was the 
scene of much valor and much suffering; and I 
think, dear friend, were you to sit down beside it, and 
in the silence of its loneliness, let your mind dwell 
upon the past, the old road would unburden itself 
to you as it did to me; for I know right well that you 
are a true, kind-hearted man, one to whom old roads 
like this, church-spires, and battle-fields would love 
to tell their memories and talk with you, as the 
evening shadows deepen around, of life's strange, 
immortal, and fruitful mysteries. 

Well, then, such is the general character of the 
road Lee's army took, hoping to pass around Grant's 
left on Thursday, the sixth. It is probable that 
Longstreet got back to it from Sheridan's and 
Meade's fronts at Jetersville before midnight. 

Lee rose early that morning and sent the following 
letter to Gordon: 

" Amelia Springs, April 6, 1865 — 4 a. m. 
" (General Gordon: ) 

" General: I have seen the dispatches (inter- 
cepted) you sent me. It was from my expectation 
of an attack being made from Jetersville that I 
was anxious that the rear of the column should reach 
Deatonsville as soon as possible. I hope the rear 
will get out of harm's way, and I rely greatly upon 
your exertions and good judgment for its safety. 



96 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

I know that men and animals are much exhausted, 
but it is necessary to tax their strength. I wish 
after the cavah-y crosses the bridge at Flat Creek 
that it be thoroughly destroyed so as to prevent pur- 
suit in that direction. The bridge over the same 
stream on the road to Jetersville I have had des- 
troyed. By holding the position at Amelia Springs 
with our cavalry, which can retire by Deatons- 
ville or up the road toward Paineville, we can secure 
the rear of the column from interruption. About 
two miles from Amelia Springs on the Deatonsville 
road, a road leads off to the right to Chapman's 
into the Ligontown road, by which Farmville may 
be reached provided there is a bridge over the Ap- 
pomattox at Ligontown. I hear there is none, there- 
fore I see no way of relieving the column of the 
wagons, and they must be brought along. You 
must, of course, keep everything ahead of you, 
wagons, stragglers, &c. I will try to get the head of 
the column on, and to get provisions at Rice's Sta- 
tion or Farmville. 

"Very respectfully, &c., 

" R. E. Lee, 

" General." 

He then left his camp at Amelia Springs to join 
Longstreet, well on his way to Rice's Station, nine 
miles west of Burkeville. Alexander, Longstreet's 
chief of artillery, and a man of courage, rare spirit. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 97 

and mild bearing, says that the troops halted for a 
short rest just before dawn, that Longstreet and 
his staff went on to Rice's Station; and that he him- 
self, as morning was breaking, selected a line of 
battle which they were to occupy on arrival. 

Field, Wilcox and Heth were in the lead of the 
moving army . Mahone's division came next, followed 
by Anderson with the forces he had brought up the 
south side of the Appomattox, that is, the remnants 
of Pickett's and Bushrod Johnson's divisions, Pickett 
in advance. Ewell's troops came next, first Custis 
Lee's division, and then Kershaw's. Ewell had been 
marching and halting all the livelong night and 
did not reach Amelia Springs from the vicinity of 
Amelia Court-House, until 8 a. m. Thursday. They 
had covered eight or nine miles only, owing to the 
congested state of the road, packed with their own 
and Anderson's troops and trains, and obstructed 
by half-burned and abandoned wagons, the havoc 
of Davies's raid. Bringing up the rear was heroic 
Gordon, and it was after nine o'clock as he rose above 
the hill west of Amelia Springs. 

After sunrise there was a heavy April shower, but 
by this time, nine o'clock, the sky was free and the 
sun was warm. And now that the rain has stopped 
and all the column is under way let the pee-wee sing 
near his home under the bridge, the bluebird warble 
in the old orchard, and the larks flute in the meadows; 
yes, let all the fields and fresh-leaved woods rejoice; 



98 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

on and on by them all, with their songs of happiness 
and carrying suggestions of home, went the Army of 
Northern Virginia, weak for want of food and sleep, 
and low at heart. Toil on, veteran heroes; a few 
days more and it will all be over, and loving hearts in 
days to come will testify their admiration in monu- 
ments of bronze and marble. And if, among the 
readers of this page, there be a worshiper of Mam- 
mon, to him I say firmly but in all kindness, stand 
back! stand back! for, not, not was their spirit or 
their ideals like yours. They saw not and cared not 
for the gods and the temple you worship in, they saw 
through the eyes of faith, a God above all gods, and 
neither gold nor script conveyed to them what it 
conveys to you. In other words, they heard the 
heart's high music, and although they met defeat they 
gained glory; and, as a member of that old army 
which contested victory with them on so many fields, 
I say to you worshipers of Mammon who this day 
belittle our country, stand back, stand back as 
that old Army of Virginia toils on. But hark! from 
the east comes the quick boom of guns: the Army 
of the Potomac is afoot and has finally struck Gor- 
don's rear guard. 

The Army of the Potomac, strangely enough, did 
not know of Lee's retreat till it moved in battle 
array from its works at Jetersville at 6 a. m., Thurs- 
day, to engage him : Griffin on the right, Humphreys 
on the left, the Sixth corps under Wright in reserve. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 99 

They soon found out, however, that Lee had gone; 
the corps then broke from Hne into columns, taking 
the roads toward Ameha Court-House, from which 
the enemy had approached their position at Jeters- 
ville. On reaching Flat Creek near Amelia Springs, 
Humphreys' advance, the Twenty-sixth Michigan, 
spied across the open country, a mile or more away 
to the northwest, the rear of Gordon's division. It 
was then about half-past ten. 

The news was sent to Meade, and at once Hum- 
phreys and GriflSn were turned to the left, and Wright 
was brought back to Jetersville and told to follow 
Sheridan, who, with Crook in advance, had set out 
to strike the road at Deatonsville. Griffin swung 
wide, circling to the left, clear around to the right 
and north of the retreating column, but Humphreys 
at once sent the Second corps after Gordon, who on 
every rise threw his rear guard across the road and, 
supported by Macon's battery, made such a resolute 
stand as to compel Humphreys' leading brigades, 
one on the right and one on the left of the road, to 
form line of battle before yielding the positions. 
Gordon never displayed more of his sterling qtialities 
as a soldier than that day and fully justified Lee's 
confidence in him as expressed in the letter of 4 a. m. 
given above, " I rely greatly upon your exertions 
and good judgment for its safety," namely, the rear 
of the retreating army. 

While Gordon is thus guarding the rear from harm. 



100 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

allowing the column packing the road ahead of him 
to make all the speed they could, let us turn to 
Sheridan. 

As before mentioned, when the infantry under 
Meade left Jetersville, moving toward Amelia Court- 
House, Sheridan, with Crook in advance, took roads 
leading toward Deatonsville, convinced that that 
would be Lee's line of retreat. 

About noon, he gained a position not far from 
Sandy Creek, several miles west of Deatonsville, 
from which through a gap in the woods he descried 
the retreating column and threw Crook against it. 
But Ewell and Anderson, as soon as he began to 
threaten, faced their divisions to the left and flung 
him back while the trains filed by. Sheridan, see- 
ing Crook's repulse, brought up Merritt, but soon 
made up his mind not to try again for the trains at 
that point, and sent him. Crook and Custer farther 
along to the left with orders to look for a weaker spot, 
keeping by him a brigade of cavalry for effect. Sher- 
idan then sent a dispatch to Grant, — it was dated 
12:10 P. M., — " The trains and army (Confederate) 
were moving all last night and are very short of 
provisions and very tired, indeed. I think now is the 
time to attack them with all your infantry. They 
are reported to have begged provisions from the peo- 
ple of the country all along the road as they passed. 
I am working around farther to the left." As a 
matter of fact, they had only a few grains of parched 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 101 

corn, and one officer in his diary recorded that he 
that day traded his necktie with a poor family for a 
bit of corn-bread. Sheridan then rode to the top of a 
hill and scanned the uplifted silent country. Off on a 
sun-bathed ridge, that rose to the northeast beyond 
several miles of intervening timber, his eye fell on 
Gordon's skirmishers slowly falling back before 
Humphreys. He then, accompanied by Miller's 
battery and Stagg's brigade of cavalry, followed the 
path of Merritt and Crook until he reached another 
overlooking point and discovered on a parallel 
ridge the Confederate trains in full view, hurrying 
with all speed, and flanked by infantry and cavalry. 
Miller at once opened on them, and Stagg was 
ordered to charge them, Sheridan's aim being to 
check these forces till Crook, Custer, and Merritt 
had reached a position to strike the road ahead of 
them. 

Stagg's Michigan men charged gallantly but were 
signally repulsed. The point at which Sheridan 
made his drive was vital, for it was where the road, 
which has already been referred to as Gordon's 
and which the harassed trains were gladly taking, 
breaks off northward, a mile or more east of Capt. 
Hillsman's plantation. Ewell says that Sheridan's 
demonstrations, continued at that point from 11 
A. M. till 2 p. M., and that he retained his troops in 
position to cover the passage of the trains and that 
as soon as they were out of the way he followed Ander- 



102 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

son. Wright, of the Sixth corps, reports that he 
turned into the road leading up to the scene of Stagg's 
attack, Miller's guns quickening his march, and on 
nearing Stagg's position put his leading divisions 
into line, gained the road, and then turned to the 
left toward Sailor's Creek. 

While Sheridan was attacking and Wright was 
hurrying from Jetersville (his corps did not get 
back to their morning starting place till noon was 
approaching), Mahone, Pickett, and Bushrod John- 
son's divisions had reached Sailor's Creek. There 
they halted to rest from their all night and fore- 
noon march. Mahone, who was across the creek 
and not under Anderson's orders, after tarrying 
a while, moved on without notifying Pickett, next 
in line. Pickett, seeing Mahone going on, asked 
Anderson for authority to resume the march, but 
Anderson sent word to him that his orders were 
to wait for Ewell. Meanwhile Custer, having made 
the detour of Gill's Mill, was heading for the gap 
between Pickett and Mahone. 

About half -past three or four Ewell came up, and 
had barely crossed the creek with Custis Lee's 
division, — Kershaw was bringing up the rear with 
Humphreys' Mississippi brigade through the Hills- 
man plantation, — when Anderson sent word back to 
Ewell to come to his aid, for Custer and the rest of 
the cavalry had broken in ahead of him. Loyally, 
Ewell, the maimed, venerable old fellow, started 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 103 

with Custis Lee's division to help Anderson. A 
Confederate officer in the Southern Historical 
Papers writes that he rode up to Ewell just at that 
moment and heard him say to some one of his party, 
" Yes, tomatoes are good. I wish I had some." 
Readers of The Battle of the Wilderness will recall 
that as that famous two days' engagement was about 
to begin Ewell was delivering a dissertation on devil- 
ing turkey legs to Major Stiles. Ewell had hardly 
got under way before Kershaw notified him that the 
whole of the Sixth corps, Wright's, was at his heels, 
which made it necessary for Ewell to halt and look 
after his own rear. 

Kershaw having been driven across the creek, 
Ewell faced Custis Lee about and formed along 
the open brow of the sassafras- and pine-tufted hill, 
Kershaw on the right, and Lee on the left ; the ravine 
scored out of the face of the hill was about the centre 
of his line. There, without a single piece of artillery 
to support them, with flags over them, they lay, 
from the road down into the ravine and up its north- 
ern bank, and every man in that line knew tjiat a 
crisis was coming. For Anderson, behind them to 
the west, was engaged — Custer, Crook and Merritt 
were all plunging at him — and, in full view on the 
valley's eastern brink, the Sixth corps was massing 
rapidly. They could see the regiments pouring into 
the fields at double quick, the battle lines, blooming 
with colors, growing longer and deeper at every 



104 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

moment, and batteries at a gallop coming into action 
front. They knew what it all meant; they had been 
on the fields of Antietam, Gettysburg, and Spottsyl- 
vania. 

While Seymour's division was forming on the right 
of the road, and Wheaton's on the left, preparatory 
to move to the attack of Ewell, Wright ordered 
intrepid Cowan to bring up his battalion of batteries, 
the 1st Rhode Island, 1st New Jersey and 1st New 
York. He posted them to the right and left of the 
Hillsman house and opened on E well's line a rapid, 
and terribly destructive fire. 

Hyde, commanding a brigade of Getty's division 
of Wright's corps, says that, as he passed him, Sheri- 
dan " was fuming and raging that he could not do 
all himself." Just about this time Edwards, with 
Wheaton's Third brigade, reported to Sheridan. 
Sheridan said to him, " The enemy are there " 
(pointing across the creek). " I want you to form 
your brigade in one line, cross the creek, and carry 
the heights," indicating the left of Custis Lee's 
position. " I asked him," says Edwards, " if my 
flanks would be covered." Sheridan gritted out, 
" Never mind your flanks. Go through them. They 
are as demoralized as hell." 

The historian of the 37th Mass., in Edwards' 
brigade, has this to say of their reaching Sheridan's 
position at Hillsman's: " The 37th had already 
marched more than 20 miles on the sandy, rolling. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 105 

pine-covered country on that warm 6th of April 
when the desultory artillery fire (it was probably 
Miller's at the time of Stagg's attack) which had 
been heard, assumed that steadiness (they were 
hearing Cowan's guns) which proclaimed to the toil- 
ing infantry that their services would be called for. 
Dashing the sweat from their faces, the enthusiastic 
fellows began to fill the magazines of their rifles 
(they were armed with Spencers) and to cast aside 
knapsacks, blankets and superfluous clothing. The 
men were ready to break into a run when the order 
to double-quick was received, and for three miles 
they went forward at a pace which nothing but the 
intense excitement of the occasion could have ena- 
bled them to maintain." So the men from the Berk- 
shire Hills came on the field. Let us dwell for a 
moment on the scene. 

The sun is sinking down, and the oak and pine 
woods crowning the hill are laying evening's peaceful 
shadows on Ewell's line; on Sheridan's its long after- 
noon beams tinge the hot billowing smoke of Cowan's 
guns, and sparkle on the steel barrels of the shouldered 
arms of the moving infantry, for they are all under 
way. Sheridan's battle-flag, which has waved on 
many good fields, is fluttering behind him; his horse 
E,ienzi, as usual, is champing the bit, trumpeters are 
ready to sound the charge, and before her mighty 
harp. War's stern musician is ready to sweep the 
iron strings. And now while Seymour's and Whea- 



106 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

ton's divisions are approaching the creek, let us hurry 
over to Ewell's Hnes, to a spot on the bare, rounded, 
eastward-sloping knoll, where under Cowan's awful 
fire lies Major Stiles's battalion. We shall remember 
that when we saw them last they were listening to him 
as he read the soldier psalm, and that then they knelt 
with him as he led them in prayer in the dimly- 
lighted little chapel on the banks of the James, and 
we shall not forget that there was one boy, as he 
read, who met his look with swimming eyes. 

They are all lying down, loaded guns in their hands, 
and the major, that young, rare, transparent gentle- 
man, is walking behind them, talking softly, famil- 
iarly, and encouragingly, warning them not to expose 
themselves, for the batteries' fire is accurate and 
frightfully deadly. 

It is no place, reader, for you or me. Let the 
major tell the story. " A good many had been 
wounded and several killed when a twenty-pounder 
Parrott shell struck immediately in my front on the 
line, nearly severing a man in twain, and hurling him 
bodily over my head, his arms hanging down and his 
hands almost slapping me in the face as they passed. 
In that awful moment I distinctly recognized young 
Blount, who had gazed into my face so intently 
Sunday night." 

Reader, excuse the oath, but, by God! this 
narrative must break; for my pen halts as my heart 
bleeds. Those tears in that poor boy's yearning eyes 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 107 

touched it deeply, and I had so hoped that he would 
be spared. Sing on. Valley of Sailor's Creek, sing 
on to the memory of that tender-hearted hero; 
and oh. Peace, blessed Peace! come and save the 
world from the sacrifice of youths like this. 

And now to go on with the bitter action : — Until 
our infantry had crossed the creek the artillery's 
fire had been fast and dreadfully fatal; then the 
guns ceased firing, and all was still as the grave, as 
the men made their way through the thickety banks 
and formed on the farther side. I'll not try to give all 
of the details of the bloody engagement, but Stiles's 
men under his orders reserved their fire till our lines 
were close up. Then they let go a crashing volley, — 
their execution was frightful, — and at once Ewell's 
centre charged our centre with fury, and drove it 
back in confusion across the creek. 

But, meanwhile, our troops on the left and right 
had gained the top of the hill, and overlapping their 
opponent's flanks, crowded them into the bowl-like 
hollow of the ravine's head. There the Thirty- 
seventh Massachusetts, most of whom were from the 
laurel-blooming hills of Berkshire, had one of the 
fiercest, most hand-to-hand and literally savage 
encounters of the war, with the remnant of Stiles's 
battalion and that of the marines from the Confed- 
erate ships which had lain in the James. They 
clubbed their muskets, fired pistols into each other's 
faces, and used the bayonet savagely. 



108 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

At the reunions of the Thirty-seventh Massachu- 
setts, I used to see one of the Berkshire men who had 
been pinned to the ground by a bayonet thrust 
clean through his breast, coming out near his spine; 
this brave fellow, Samuel E. Eddy of Company D, 
" notwithstanding his awful situation," says the 
historian of the regiment, " succeeded in throwing 
another cartridge into his rifle, the bullet from which 
was next moment sent through the heart of his 
antagonist. The Confederate fell across the pros- 
trate Unionist," who threw aside the body, withdrew 
the bayonet from his own horrible wound, rose to 
his feet, and walked to the rear. 

And yet, looking at him, you would have seen a 
quiet, self-respecting, high-minded man; and I 
think that some of those beautiful, blue-tinted Berk- 
shire Hills glory in the spot that holds his gallant 
clay. 

Keifer, who commanded one of Wright's brigades, 
chiefly of Ohio men, — and the state is proud of him 
and them, — says, " One week after the battle I 
revisited the field," — he was on his way back from 
Appomattox, — " and could then have walked on 
Confederate dead for many successive rods along 
the face of the heights held by the enemy when the 
battle opened." 

These men were put in a trench, and Mrs. Hillsman 
told me that a mother, one of unmistakable breeding, 
who lived in Savannah, shortly after the battle came 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 109 

there to look for her son. A deluging rain had swept 
the shallow covering of earth away, and among the 
festering bodies she found that of her boy by a ring 
still circling his ashy, shrunken finger. 

On my trip to the field last October, I stood alone 
on the bank of the trench; it was in a little cradling 
ravine, green grass carpeted it, and an open-eyed 
daisy lifted its innocent face to the sky, its gaze per- 
haps following the track of those upward-gone spirits; 
all around was still, a white cloud or two floated in 
the east, and the day was done. I paused a while; 
the mood was deep, and soft and tender were the 
murmurs that floated down about me. 

The end of the carnage came quickly; for our 
cavalry, having torn and scattered Anderson, Pickett 
and Johnson, charged down on poor old Ewell; and 
he, seeing that all was lost, surrendered himself 
and his command. The captives amounted to 
thousands. 

A Confederate oflBcer in the Southern Historical 
Papers says, " When the infantry which we had so 
recently repulsed came up to us again it was with 
smiling faces. They commenced opening their 
haversacks, offering to share their hardtack with 
us, which in our famished condition we most eagerly 
and gratefully accepted. They moreover com- 
plimented us on the gallant fight we had made. In 
this connection I will add that we were always 
treated with every consideration by the veterans 



110 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

at the front. It was only when we fell into the 
hands of the provost-guard that any harshness was 
shown." 

The gap between Mahone and Anderson proved 
to be the key of that fatal day, which for Lee was 
like that which floated before the vision-seeing eye 
of Zephaniah, " a day of trouble and distress, a day 
of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and 
gloominess." 

Custer struck the gap just as Col. Frank Huger's 
battalion of artillery was trying to cross, capturing 
his West Point friend Huger and most of the guns, 
and supported by Crook on the right and Merritt 
on the left, broke down Anderson's stubborn attempt 
to clear the road, taking Corse and Hunton of Pick- ' 
ett's division prisoners, Pickett himself, Fitz Lee 
and Anderson escaping by the speed of their horses. 
Bushrod Johnson fled up the road in the midst of a 
panicky swarm of soldiers and teamsters toward 
Rice's Station, pursued by Merritt. 

And now as to Gordon. He got up to the road, 
which I have called by his name, about 6 o'clock 
and, thinking the rest of the troops had gone that 
way, turned into it. Humphreys, of course, followed 
him and about dusk struck Gordon's rear-guard 
as it was crossing the creek at Vaughn's, capturing 
two guns, a considerable number of prisoners and 
two hundred wagons that were in a great mass across 
the approach to the bridge over Sailor's Creek. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 111 

Gordon took a position on the height beyond the 
creek with artillery, but night soon put an end of 
his trials for that day, and later he moved on to- 
ward High Bridge and went into bivouac. At this 
time it may be well, as a note of the progress of 
events, to say that Humphreys at 4:20 p. m. was 
about three miles west of Deatonsville and said in a 
dispatch to Meade, " The road is literally lined with 
their tents, baggage and cooking utensils. We have 
taken one gun." He reported his final and success- 
ful blow at Gordon's rear guard from the east bank 
of Sailor's Creek at 7 :30 p. m. 

Night came on before Ord could get his troops 
in line ready to assault Longstreet's position at 
Rice's, and perhaps it was just as well, for he might 
not have carried it : the men that were in those works 
were the veterans of Gettysburg and Chickamauga. 
Meanwhile, Anderson and Ewell not reporting with 
their divisions at Rice's, Lee became concerned, and 
as the afternoon was waning, sent his aide. Col. 
Venable, to find what was the trouble. 

When Venable got back from his mission, Lee 
was talking to Mahone, and the aide asked his chief 
if he had received his message. Lee replied he had 
not. When Venable told him that our cavalry had 
captured the wagon trains at Sailor's Creek, Lee 
exclaimed, " Where is Anderson.'^ Where is Ewell? 
It is strange I can't hear from them." Convinced 
of some disaster, he ordered Mahone to retrace his 



112 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

steps and see what was the matter. Lee rode with 
Mahone, and presently they came to the south bank 
of Big Sailor's Creek. Mahone says, " The disaster 
which had overtaken our army was in full view and 
the scene beggars description — hurrying teamsters 
with their teams and dangling traces (no wagons), 
retreating infantry without guns, many without hats, 
a harmless mob." What they saw were men from 
Anderson's, Johnson's, and Pickett's divisions pur- 
sued by Merritt; the sun was setting. " Lee, at the 
sight of the spectacle," so says Mahone, " straight- 
ened himself in his saddle and exclaimed, as if talk- 
ing to himself, ' My God! has the army dissolved ?' " 
Mahone put an end to the cavalry's pursuit mighty 
quickly. 

As soon as the battle was over, Sheridan started 
an aide to Grant with a dispatch saying: "Up to 
the present time we have captured Generals Ewell, 
Kershaw, Barton, Corse, Hunton, Dubose and Custis 
Lee, several thousand prisoners (it turned out that 
there were five or six thousand), fourteen pieces of 
artillery and a large number of wagons. If the thing 
is pressed, I think Lee will surrender." 

That dispatch brings to an end the story of the 
day's activities, which I wish I could have arrayed 
with more life and skill, but the armies moving as 
they did before daylight, and covering so much 
ground, it is hard to keep all that was going on 
clearly before the eye. The only way that could 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 113 

be done, would be to imagine ourselves up on the 
gray shady porch of some overhanging pinnacled 
and bastioned cloud; then all the field would be 
below us, and we could watch hour by hour the 
moving, bannered forces. But reader, let that be 
as it may. I have done the best I could for 
you. Well, the sun had gone down red, signalling 
rain; night had fallen, and the last shot had 
been fired; Merritt had withdrawn from Mahone's 
stern front at Big Sailor, and Sheridan's camp-fire 
on his victorious field was lit. " He is lying," so 
reports Newhall, and although I never saw this 
man but once or twice that I remember, yet I wish 
I had known him well, for he must have been a rare 
companion, " he is lying on the broad of his back on 
a blanket, with his feet to the fire, in a condition of 
sleepy wakefulness. Clustered about are blue uni- 
forms and gray in equal numbers, and immediately 
around his camp-fire are most of the Confederate 
generals. Ewell is sitting on the ground hugging his 
knees " (one flesh and blood, the other lifeless wood), 
" his face bent down between his arms." 

Ewell's brave old heart was beating low : neither he 
nor any of his comrades was in a mood to talk, yet 
sadly he told Wright, who invited him to share his 
headquarters, that their cause was gone, and that 
Lee should surrender so that no more lives be wasted. 
Before closing his eyes in sleep, with his natural 
love and affection, he sent for Stiles, and in the 



114 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

presence of a half-dozen generals complimented him 
on the conduct of his battalion. 

General Kershaw, Colonel Frank Huger, and sev- 
eral other Confederate officers were guests of Custer. 
Huger and Custer had been fellow cadets in the same 
company, D, at West Point. Huger, as well as Ker- 
shaw, was from South Carolina, and of distinguished 
Huguenot birth, to which his look and bearing bore 
daily witness. Custer was from Ohio and was then 
about twenty-six years old, of heavy build and full 
of natural joy. After his promotion to a generalcy, 
Custer dressed fantastically in olive corduroy, wore 
his yellow hair long, and supported a flaming scarlet 
flannel necktie whose loose ends the wind fluttered 
across his breast as, with uplifted sabre, he charged 
at the head of his brigade, followed by his equally 
reckless troopers, who, in loving imitation, wore neck- 
ties like his own. 

He was always a boy, and absolutely free from 
harboring a spirit of malice, hatred, or revenge. 
Whenever fortune made any of his West Point 
friends prisoners, he hunted them up, grasped their 
hands, with his happy smile, and, before parting, 
tendered generous proffers of aid. 

While Sheridan, Wright, and Humphreys were 
pursuing, and finally wreaking such signal disaster 
upon Lee's retreating forces, Grant and Meade had 
remained near Jetersville. Close by was a house that 
had an upper piazza from which toward noon, across 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 115 

the country and three or four miles away, Lyman 
says, they caught sight of a bare knoll over which the 
Confederate trains were passing, Gordon and Hum- 
phreys having a running fight at their rear. No news 
from the front of any great importance arrived till 
Sheridan's dispatch dated 12:20 p. m, (already given), 
to which Meade responded by renewed orders to 
Wright and Humphreys for action and pursuit more 
vigorous than ever, if possible. 

Toward sundown, and still unaware of the day's 
good fortune. Grant and Meade separated; Grant 
set out for Burkeville, and Meade took the road to 
Deatonsville, and about half-past eight came to the 
bivouac by the roadside which Lyman, having 
galloped ahead, had selected some two miles beyond 
the village. He had barely ridden into camp when 
up came Sheridan's aide riding fast with his dis- 
patch to Grant — Sheridan thinking he was with 
Meade — announcing his Sailor's Creek victory. 
Meade, as usual in such cases, and by Grant's 
instructions, read it, exclaiming with surprise and 
impatience, " Where was Wright .^^ " Had Wright 
been one of the smooth, keen, foxy men of the 
world, he would have started an aide to Meade 
before the smoke had lifted from the victorious 
field that his troops had helped to win; but he 
was of that other class of old-time West Point 
men, men who did not boast, and who shunned 
newspaper fame. But very soon Meade heard 



116 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

from him and Humphreys direct, and was com- 
forted. 

Grant at Burke ville did not get Sheridan's dis- 
patch till midnight and at once wrote to Meade, 
" Every moment now is important to us," and or- 
dered Griffin, in bivouac near Ligontown to the 
right of Humphreys and near the Appomattox, to 
start by the most direct road without delay for 
Prince Edward Court-House, seven miles south of 
Farm ville; adding that Mackenzie's cavalry, then 
with Ord, confronting Longstreet at Rice's Station, 
had been ordered to the same place and would be 
under way by 2 a. m. That these moves were made 
to head off Lee from reaching Danville is clearly 
obvious. The movement of Griffin to Ligontown 
was singularly futile, contributing nothing toward 
the results of the day. Had he been brought back 
early in the morning with the Sixth corps and 
been thrown against the left of Lee's long marching 
column, Lee's disaster would in all probability have 
been complete. 

During the evening, while at Burkeville and before 
Grant had heard of Sheridan's success, he had had 
a long talk with a prisoner, an old army surgeon, a 
Doctor Smith, a Virginian, who had resigned at the 
breaking out of the war. The doctor in the course 
of his interview repeated what Ewell, his relative, 
had said to him at some time in the course of the 
previous winter, to the effect that he thought the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 117 

cause was surely to be lost in the end, and that the 
South ought to ask for peace. 

I think I can see Grant's old friend at perfect ease 
during this talk and looking with kindliness into 
Grant's steady mild blue eyes, for his old army friends 
always met him with frankness and trust whether 
he was in sunshine or shadow; and I think I can 
hear Grant responding with his unaffected, low voice, 
one of noticeable purity and pleasingly vibrant. 
As will be seen, the interview had its fruit. 

So ends the chronicle of Thursday, the fourth day 
of the pursuit, and, as in my mind's eye I contem- 
plate that entire field, the overcast sky with night 
drawing on, I can see the camp-fires twinkling, can 
hear Sailor's Creek murmuring in tones of lament, 
can see the spirit of the old fields and woods along 
the road from Amelia Springs standing aghast in 
sleepless wonder, and you, too, little roadside wild 
flowers, full of pity and shuddering in terror over 
war's dead and dying victims ; yes, I see you all and 
it may be weak in me to feel as I do, but a young 
soldier lying alone dead on a field always evoked a 
haunting and deep sorrow. 



VIII 

Grant and Meade had the lulling of victory to go 
to sleep on, but not so Lee. The day had gone fear- 
fully against him, and with it had gone, too, about 
all hope of reaching Danville. But Lynchburg, 
with its line of works and abundant supplies, seeing 
his baffled, dismal plight, beckoned to him, and he 
gave orders to fall back on Farmville, the first stage 
thitherward. According to Mahone, he was some- 
what disturbed as to how to get away from their 
immediate position at Rice's Station, and asked his 
advice. Mahone, who knew the country, suggested 
that Longstreet should take the river road to Farm- 
ville, about nine miles west on the railway, while he 
would strike across country to High Bridge, where 
the river is crossed by a country road bridge, whose 
roadbed, after traversing a little crescent intervale 
on the north bank of the Appomattox, comes to the 
feet of heaving, leaning fields with a background of 
timber, lifting a crown of green up against the remote 
and mute horizon line. 

This roadway bridge is four or five miles from 
Farmville, and just below the railway bridge known 
as High Bridge, an airy structure on piers that at 

118 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 119 

the centre are nearly a hundred feet high. The 
valley of the Appomattox at that point is narrow and 
its banks are willow-fringed. Ord early in the morn- 
ing of Thursday sent a small force of infantry and 
cavalry from Burkeville to destroy this bridge, but 
it was attacked when nearing its aim by Fitz Lee's, 
Rosser's and Munford's cavalry, and after a very 
desperate encounter was completely overcome and 
captured. In this engagement my classmate, James 
Dearing, commanding a brigade of Confederate 
cavalry, was mortally wounded, and I never see the 
name " High Bridge," that his handsome, cheery 
face does not come back to me and I hear again his 
happy voice. Dearing was taken to his home in 
Lynchburg and when in the next week Mackenzie of 
our class was entering Lynchburg with his division, 
Dearing's surgeons sent word to him and asked that 
the occupation of the city might be made as quietly 
as circumstances would allow. Mackenzie at once 
gave orders to that effect and went to inquire for 
Dearing. The attendant at the door told him that 
Dearing was very low and that the surgeons had 
forbidden any one to see him. Mackenzie ex- 
pressed his sorrow and asked a surgeon who then 
appeared to give his love to his old classmate. Dear- 
ing heard and recognized Mackenzie's voice and 
against his surgeon's protest insisted on seeing him. 
When Mackenzie entered the room, Dearing reached 
out his paling hand. Mackenzie took it in both of 



120 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

his and knelt by Dealing's bed; his eyes were shed- 
ding tears, for he saw that Death was not far away. 
Dearing asked after a number of his class and sent 
his love to all of us. In a few days his spirit mounted, 
accompanied for awhile on its heavenly way by 
those of the fields, woods and brooks he loved, for 
I am fain to believe they go with us for the sake of 
old friendship on the first stages of that last journey. 
His clay now rests within sight of the Blue Ridge 
whose azure sky-line was so familiar to his open, 
nobly beaming eyes. 

Lee adopted Mahone's suggestions as to withdraw- 
ing from their position at Rice's Station, and Latrobe, 
Longstreet's adjutant-general, in his orders, written 
by candle-light and issued about nine o'clock, directed 
that the trains and such batteries in position as were 
not necessary should be started at once for Farm- 
ville; that Field's division should retire first, fol- 
lowed by Heth and Wilcox; that the sharpshooters 
should be withdrawn an hour after the troops had 
marched; and that Rosser's cavalry should bring 
up the rear; closing the orders with the injunction, 
" Every effort must be made to get up all stragglers 
and all such men as have fallen asleep by the camp- 
fires or by the wayside." 

Meanwhile, Wallace, Wise, Moody, Ransom, the 
remnants of Bushrod Johnson's and Pickett's and 
Anderson's divisions were shoaling to High Bridge 
and crossed it about 11 p. m. Gordon, to whom 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 121 

Lee's orders had been communicated, aroused his 
men after a few hours' rest, resumed the march, 
and was over the river before dayhght. Mahone 
reached the bridge just after Gordon had cleared 
it, but the sun was up as his rear-guard was 
crossing. 

According to Col. John S. Wise, a son of the General 
Henry A. Wise, Lee himself did not leave the vicinity 
of Rice's Station till late in the night, for he says, 
" It was after midnight when I found General Lee. 
He was in an open field north of Rice's Station. 
A camp-fire of fence-rails was burning low and 
Colonel Marshall [Lee's adjutant-general] sat in an 
ambulance with a lantern and lap-desk, and Lee, with 
one hand on a wheel, his foot on a log, was dictating 
orders." 

And this is how it happened that the distinguished 
author of The End of an Era, then a boy of twenty 
years, reached the army. 

Mr. Davis was at Danville. Three full days had 
gone by, and not a word from Lee. Anxiety grew, 
and keener and keener was the longing of the Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy to know how it had gone 
with the Army of Northern Virginia. Midnight 
of the third day was approaching, and the spare, 
sleepless Mr. Davis, with his pathetically channeled 
face, could stand the suspense no longer. He tele- 
graphed to a General Walker, commanding the 
troops nearest to the army to send some one out 



122 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

to see and get the news. For this signal duty young 
Wise was chosen. 

After stirring adventures Wise got to Farmville 
late Thursday evening, a few hours after the blow 
at Sailor's Creek, and from there he threaded the 
shattered, retreating forces to Lee's headquarters. 
More anon of this visit of Wise, but first let us follow 
the events of the night. 

Longstreet's troops were moving by twelve, 
and Alexander says, " I remember the night as 
peculiarly uncomfortable. The road was crowded 
with disorganized men, and deep in mud; we 
were moving all night and scarcely made six 
miles." In one of the Southern diaries we read, 
referring to that same night, " The march now as- 
sumed every appearance of a rout, soldiers from 
every command were straggling all over the country, 
and our once grand army was rapidly melting away." 
The diarist's battery, the Richmond Howitzers, 
reached High Bridge at a late hour and remained 
there till daylight, then crossed the river and moved 
toward Farmville. 

Of all these unhappy nights — and bear in mind 
that they had marched practically every one ex- 
cept the first since they set out on the retreat — I 
think this must have been about the dismalest. 
Hope had parted company with them, defeat had 
laid its hand heavily on them, it was pitch-dark 
and drizzling, — the rain had come that the red 



THE SUNSET OP THE CONFEDERACY 123 

setting sun had foretold, — the famishing horses 
were falling, the men were sleepy, wet, and hungry. 
Yet through mud, up hill and down, listening to 
the call of duty, they went, till many out of pure 
weakness, no longer able to drag one foot after an- 
other, reeled into the woods, dropped limply down, 
and laying their cheeks on the drenched leaves, went 
to sleep, some to the very long, long sleep. Those 
whose strength held out plodded on and on, wonder- 
ing at every step they took how much farther it was 
to Farmville. When morning broke, Friday the 
7th, the fields and woods by the roadside were 
dotted with squads of men tired, sick at heart, and 
moving as in a dream. 

Now mark the contrast. At that very hour, sun- 
rise, Friday the 7th, our troops were all under way 
in pursuit, and the historian of one of the regiments 
in the Sixth corps says, " The men were singing, 
laughing, joking, and apparently happy. Along the 
road were evidences of the rapid retreat of the enemy, 
all sorts of ammunition strewn around loose, dead 
horses lying where they dropped, others abandoned 
because they could no longer carry their riders, and 
here and there a dead soldier, lying in the road where 
he had halted for the last time, with every appear- 
ance of having died from hunger and exhaustion." 

" Soon," says one of Humphreys's corps, in the 
track of Gordon, " we began to come upon whole 
packs of wagons burned as they stood, artillery 



124 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

ammunition scattered by the roadside, and caissons 
partially destroyed." In fact, there was scarcely 
a rod of the way that did not have its mute witnesses 
to the demoralization of the retreating forces. 

Of course, all these signs of distress only quickened 
our advance, and soon brought Humphreys to the 
vicinity of High Bridge. The Nineteenth Maine, a 
regiment that in the Wilderness won great honor for 
its far-away Pine Tree State, now leading its valiant 
corps, carried the approaches to the burning wagon- 
road bridge, which Mahone had set fire to, as well as 
to the lofty railroad structure, after crossing. 

The tall woodsmen from Maine rushed down and, 
by one means and another, put out the fast-creeping 
blaze, all the time under severe fire from Mahone's 
rear-guard. For the spare, little, blue-eyed, cool, 
ambitious man, witnessing the efforts to save the 
bridges, started a brigade back to drive our men away 
till the fire could do its work, but the Nineteenth 
Maine, its courage drawn from the timbered reaches 
of the Penobscot and Kennebec, stood its ground till 
help came, and then, in turn, drove Mahone's brigade 
back across the intervale up to the hills, forcing them 
to abandon ten guns. 

By nine o'clock the whole Second corps was over, 
and Humphreys, on reporting the fact to Meade, 
said he could see a column of the enemy's infantry 
some two miles distant moving northwestward. 
What he saw were Gordon's and Mahone's columns 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 125 

on what is known as the Cumberland Church Road, 
a road which comes into the Appomattox Court- 
House and Lynchburg road about three or four 
miles above Farmville. So much for Humphreys, 
Gordon, and Mahone. 

Sheridan started Crook from Sailor's Creek 
battle-field — imagine an open-faced, blue-eyed man 
with a splaying, tawny beard and an aquiline nose — 
early toward High Bridge; while he, accompanied by 
Merritt's and Custer's divisions of cavalry, set out 
for Prince Edward Court-House by way of Rice's. 
Prince Edward Court-House is on the main road 
leading south from Farmville, and was to Lee's plans, 
if he had any left of going to Danville, what Jeters- 
ville was to him at Amelia Court-House. 

As Custer rode by the Confederate prisoners and 
recognized Kershaw and Huger, his guests of the 
night before, he lifted his hat to them. Kershaw 
lifted his and exclaimed, " There goes a chivalrous 
fellow, let's give him three cheers; " to which Custer 
responded by ordering the band just behind him to 
strike up the Confederate tune " The Bonny Blue 
Flag," and the prisoners screamed their fierce "rebel " 
yell with delight. 

Crook on approaching High Bridge ran up against 
Humphreys, pulled his left bridle-rein and struck 
across the country, and presently fell in at the head 
of Ord's troops on the trail of Longstreet's column 
from Rice's Station. At Bush River, which is but 



126 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

little more than a good-sized creek, about half-way 
from Rice's Station to Farmville, Crook's advance 
came up with Longstreet's rear-guard. Scales' 
brigade of infantry, Rosser's and Fitz Lee's people 
lining its opposite bank. 

But by the time Crook got ready to attack, Ord's 
advance, who had actually marched as fast as the 
mounted force, — so fleet were they now, hearing 
the call of the end, — hurried to his ranks, and 
together they charged across and swept the ene- 
my's cavalry away from the ridge. Then, with 
Dandy's brigade of infantry. Crook pushed on after 
them. 

Wright, who had started from Sailor's Creek, had 
by noon only got as far as Sandy Creek, an easterly 
tributary of Bush River, and reported to Meade 
that Griffin himself, on his way to Prince Edward 
Court-House, was there, and the head of his column 
drawing near. It will be remembered that Grant 
had given Griffin orders for this move while at Burke- 
ville. 

Meade, who was still unwell, took the road to 
High Bridge, reached there at eleven o'clock and 
established his headquarters. 

Grant left Burkeville about seven and overtook 
Wright's corps, that was following Ord's, the troops 
cheering him well as he rode through them. Keifer, 
under Wright, in his Four Years of War says, " The 
roads were muddy and much cut up by the Confeder- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 127 

ate army. Grant was dressed to all appearances in 
a tarpaulin suit," — it was still raining a little, — 
" and lie was even to his whiskers so bespattered 
with mud, fresh and dried, as to almost prevent 
recognition. He, then as always, was quiet, modest, 
and undemonstrative. A close look showed an 
expression of deep anxiety." And now having all 
of Grant's army in motion on that Friday morning, 
let us turn to Lee's. Here is what my friend Alex- 
ander, says, who only last autumn crossed that other 
great river, and when I shall cross, too, I hope some 
one, preferably he who saw the vision on the Isle of 
Patmos, will lead me to him, for he was good, 
soothing, and winsome company. 

" About sunrise, we got to Farmville and crossed 
the river on a bridge to the north side of the Appo- 
mattox, and here we received a small supply of ra- 
tions. Four railroad trains had been sent down from 
Lynchburg. 

" Here we found General Lee. While we were 
getting breakfast, he sent for me and, taking out his 
map, showed me that the enemy had taken a high- 
way bridge across the Appomattox near the High 
Bridge, were crossing on it, and would come in upon 
our road about three miles ahead. He directed me 
to send artillery there to cover our passage and, 
meanwhile, to take personal charge of the two bridges 
at Farmville (the railroad and the highway), pre- 
pare them for burning, see that they were not fired 



128 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

too soon, so as to cut off our own men, or so late that 
the enemy might save them. 

" While he explained, my eyes ran over the map 
and I saw another road to Lynchburg than the one 
we were taking. This other kept the south side of 
the river and was the straighter of the two, our road 
joining it near Appomattox Court-House. I pointed 
this out, and he asked if I could find some one whom 
he might question. I had seen at a house near by an 
intelligent man, whom I brought up, and who con- 
firmed the map. The Federals would have the 
shortest road to Appomattox Station, a common 
point a little beyond Appomattox Court-House. 
Saying that there would be time enough to look after 
that, the general folded up his map and I went to 
look after the bridges. 

" As the enemy [Crook and Dandy] were already 
in sight, I set fire to the railroad bridge at once, and, 
having well prepared the highway bridge, I left my 
aide. Lieutenant Mason, to fire it on a signal from 
me. It also was successfully burned. In The End 
of an Era, by John S. Wise, he has described an 
interview occurring between his father. General 
Wise, and General Lee, at Farmville at this time, 
which I quote : — 

" * We found General Lee on the rear portico of 
the house I have mentioned. He had washed his face 
in a tin basin and stood drying his beard with a 
coarse towel as we approached. " General Lee," 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 129 

exclaimed my father, " my poor brave men are lying 
on yonder hill more dead than alive. For more than 
a week they have been fighting day and night, 
without food, and, by God ! sir, they shall not move 
another step until somebody gives them something 
to eat." 

" ' " Come in. General," said General Lee, sooth- 
ingly. " They deserve something to eat and shall 
have it; and, meanwhile, you shall share my break- 
fast." He disarmed everything like defiance by his 
kindness. . . . General Lee inquired what he thought 
of the situation. " Situation .f* " said the bold old 
man. " There is no situation. Nothing remains. 
General Lee, but to put your poor men on your poor 
mules and send them home in time for the spring 
ploughing. This army is hopelessly whipped, and 
is fast becoming demoralized. These men have 
already endured more than I believed flesh and blood 
could stand, and I say to you, sir, emphatically, 
that to prolong the struggle is murder, and the blood 
of every man who is killed from this time forth is 
on your head. General Lee." 

'* ' This last expression seemed to cause General 
Lee great pain. With a gesture of remonstrance, 
and even of impatience, he protested. " Oh, General, 
do not talk so wildly ! My burdens are heavy enough ! 
What would the country think of me, if I did what 
you suggest.? " ' " Lee must have had in mind Pem- 
berton, whom the South had execrated for surrender- 



130 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

ing Vicksburg to Grant a few years before; in fact 
while Lee was at Gettysburg. 

" ' " Country be damned," was the quick reply. 
" There is no country. There has been no country. 
General, for a year or more. You are the country to 
these men. They have fought for you. They have 
shivered through a long winter for you. Without 
pay or clothes or care of any sort, their devotion to 
you and faith in you have been the only things that 
have held this army together. If you demand the 
sacrifice, there are still left thousands of us who will 
die for you. You know the game is desperate be- 
yond redemption, and that, if you so announce, no 
man, or government, or people, will gainsay your 
decision. That is why I repeat that the blood of any 
man killed hereafter is on your head." General Lee 
stood for some time at an open window looking out 
at the throng now surging by upon the roads and 
in the fields, and made no response.' " 

Well might Lee say, " My burdens are heavy 
enough! " and Alexander adds that General Wise 
had in no way exaggerated them. 

This heart-sick, volcano-like eruption of Governor 
Wise — he was then aged, and Lyman describes 
him, when, two days later and after the surrender, he 
came to see his brother-in-law. General Meade, as 
" an old man, with spectacles and a short white 
beard, a stooping sickly figure with his legs tied 
round with gray blankets " — shoots up once more 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 131 

into the clear light of national events, recalling the 
conditions and passions of my youth, and if for a 
moment I dwell on them, it is because out of them I 
saw the tragedy of the war burst upon us all. 

It was Wise's fortune to be the Governor of 
Virginia (the Old Dominion had not then been dis- 
membered) when the trial and execution of John 
Brown for murder at Harper's Ferry took place, in 
the autumn of 1859. The event startled the coun- 
try from shore to shore and lifted Wise and Brown 
into flaming notoriety; and they two, predestined 
actors in one of Fate's dramas, held the stage for 
months. Wise, as governor, went to Charleston, 
West Virginia, where Brown was incarcerated, 
and had an interview with him just before he was 
led out to the gallows, and was deeply impressed by 
the tall, roughly-framed, cool, shock-haired, blue-eyed 
man, secure against any shake of Fortune, whose 
utterances showed that he had thought profoundly 
on life's mysteries. More, the governor saw clearly 
that Brown was fortified with a virtue upon which 
he. Wise, prided himself: indomitable courage. 

And now, because I lived through it all, — my 
room-mate at West Point was a Southerner and in- 
timate friends from the South were all around me, 
and I know how much Brown's attempt had to do 
with bringing on the war, — allow me to make a few 
reflections on this interview, and to confess, more- 
over, that I am prone thereto for the sake of the 



132 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

narrative, whose life and worth depends on the 
shadowed depths of its background. 

Reader, let me tell you that that meeting of 
Governor Henry A. Wise of Virginia and John Brown 
of fadeless history was a meeting face to face of 
the representatives of two mutually antagonistic 
forces which, from the dawn of civilization, let peace 
have bloomed or sung as it may, have never laid 
down their arms. One feeding in spirit on the idea 
of the brotherhood of man and contemplating with 
lonely rapture, as he toiled, the laying down of his 
life, if need be, for the freedom of his brother-toilers, 
black or white; and the other, born into the purple, 
the Gates of Opportunity wide open in front of him, 
ambition leaping freely and clutching highest honors, 
musing, not on the humanities, but on the price- 
less idea of democracy, till he, also, contemplated 
with a noble rapture the laying of his life down, if 
need be, for that basic principle which in his mind, 
as in that of all mankind, is just as dear as freedom 
itself: that is, the right of a people to govern them- 
selves. 

There they stood, looking keenly into each other's 
face, each trying to read to the bottom the other's 
heart, John Brown and Henry A. Wise, living, 
breathing types of two old and mutually distrusting 
forces ; Wise in a broad sense a child of Fortune and 
sipping the wine of Success, John Brown, in God's 
providence, a son of Toil and drinking to the lees 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 133 

the distillations of obscurity and failure; and before 
the grass had matted over Brown's grave their 
political embodiments rushed at each other and 
clenched in a deadly struggle, for the fullness of 
time had come. 

In vain the North protested Brown's bloody 
intent, involving as it did a universal massacre and 
causing the South to shudder as it recalled the fright- 
ful butcheries of San Domingo. Unfortunately the 
unscrupulous among the Southern fire-eaters trans- 
lated Brown's demoniacal attempt as duly express- 
ing the real and true feelings of the entire North; and 
their orators, after Mr. Lincoln's election as Presi- 
dent, lashed themselves into delirium and clamored 
for secession, with its inevitable war. Finally the 
challenge was thrown down with wild screams of 
defiance by the original secessionists, and the thou- 
sands who had clung to the Union were swept as by a 
tempest into a war which many had prayed God to 
avert. 

The challenge was accepted, the tragedy began; 
slavery, as an institution for the South to fight for, 
disappeared in a twinkling, and in the North the 
question whether one state or a dozen states could 
drag the country itself from its natural, yes, predes- 
tined orbit, became the inspiring, living issue. 

Well, well ! But, as St. Juliana said, " All is well 
and all shall be well ; " yet how little did Governor 
Wise dream that day in Charleston that in less than 



134 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

six years he would be on the hills above Farmville 
in the hopeless wreck of the last fighting force of the 
South. But so it had come to pass, and I pity the 
old man, with spectacles and gray beard, who, under 
the awful disappointment of defeat, and worn out 
with worry and hunger, unbolted the door of his 
heart. He has long since gone to his grave on the 
eastern shore of his beloved Chesapeake, and I am 
sure he sleeps quietly, for I have heard the lulling 
of the waves on those long sandy beaches myself. 

While the interview between Wise and Lee was 
going on, that Friday morning, some of Longstreet's 
trains were hurriedly replenishing their supplies 
from the cars sent down from Lynchburg; but, be- 
fore they had filled their wagons. Crook's cavalry and 
Dandy's brigade of Ord's corps appeared in the high 
fields to the south of and overlooking the attractive 
little village of Farmville. One of their batteries. 
Elder's I believe, opened; the railway trains, appre- 
hensive of just that danger, fled back toward Lynch- 
burg, and the swarming Confederates, infantry and 
cavalry, scampered across the bridges up on to the 
bare, high sloping fields, above Farmville. Rosser's 
cavalry, when Crook charged down into the town, — 
the bridges by that time were burning, — had to seek 
a ford several miles up the river. Ord's advance got 
into Farmville about two p. m. ; Wright with the 
Sixth corps, somewhat later. 

Gordon and Mahone reached Cumberland Church 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 135 

about ten o'clock, halted and entrenched. The road 
their works spanned soon enters the Lynchburg pike, 
which runs north from Farmville and then turns west 
for Appomattox, about twenty-five miles away. It 
is nearly paralleled by a road known as the Plank as 
far as New Store, not quite half way to Appomat- 
tox Court-House. These were the roads Lee, who 
had his quarters where the Cumberland Church 
road comes into the Lynchburg pike, meant to take, 
and it was necessary to hold that point until the 
trains and artillery could get a start out of the way 
of the infantry. Longstreet was in line with a num- 
ber of batteries ready to check any advance from 
Farmville, and that Gordon and Mahone might hold 
their own against Humphreys, Colonel Poague's 
battalion of artillery, which played such havoc with 
the same corps, then under Hancock at the Wilder- 
ness, was sent to the Cumberland Church lines. 

The sky cleared about noon and every old white- 
and pink-blooming apple tree, the fields and woods 
sprinkled with flowers, yellow, white, and blue dog- 
wood, and blazing azalea, began to rejoice. 

But not so those weary, hunger-feeble, Confed- 
erate veterans, throwing up a line of works across 
the road above Farmville to stay the inexorable 
Humphreys until the famishing horses dragging ar- 
tillery and trains could get a little start for Appo- 
mattox. No, there was no rejoicing among them, 
let the fields, sky, and brooks smile and gurgle as 



136 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

they might; and I have no doubt that more than 
one of the tired men, their heads bowed down, en- 
vied the dead in Cumberland churchyard. Yet their 
courage rang Kke an anvil when Humphreys struck 
at them late in the afternoon. 

Humphreys came up about two o'clock, and after 
a survey reported to Meade that he had the whole 
Confederate army in his front, and apparently full 
of fight. Whereupon Meade sent orders to Wright, 
who he supposed had reached Farmville, to cross 
and attack at once. Wright, however, could not obey 
this order immediately, for he had to wait until Peter 
Michie, chief engineer on Ord's staff and my dear 
friend of West Point days, could bring up his pon- 
toon train to bridge the river; as a matter of fact 
it was growing dark before the bridge was ready for 
Wright. 

Crook's division forded the Appomattox above the 
village about four o'clock, and his advance brigade, 
Gregg's, catching sight of retreating trains, attacked ; 
but Rosser and Munford turned on him so savagely 
that Gregg was captured and his troops driven back 
on to the rest in confusion. The other brigades of 
the division had to take the defensive, and later re- 
ceived orders from Grant to recross and join Sheri- 
dan, who, after lunching at Prince Edward Court- 
House under spreading oaks, sent Mackenzie's di- 
vision of cavalry to Prospect Station, eleven miles 
west of Farmville on the Lynchburg Railroad, and 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 137 

then followed after him with the other two divisions, 
Merritt's and Custer's. 

Humphreys, that man of steely courage, hearing 
Crook's guns and thinkmg they were Wright's 
advance, assaulted, selecting his most determined 
division-commander, Miles, to deliver the blow. Lee, 
however, apprised of Humphreys' threatening at- 
titude, hurried Longstreet to the spot, who on ar- 
riving sent G. T. Anderson's and Bratton's brigades 
of Field's division to Mahone, who in turn directed 
them through a woodland to Miles' right and re- 
pulsed him with heavy loss. By this time it was al- 
most dark. 

In the course of the afternoon, Wright, while 
waiting for Michie's bridge to be built, told Ord and 
Gibbon, who had already reached Farmville and been 
joined by Grant, what Ewell had said to him the 
night before at Sailor's Creek, namely, of Lee's duty, 
in view of what had happened that day, to stop the 
shedding of any more blood. Wright repeated the 
same story to Grant, thus confirming what Doctor 
Smith had told him; then Grant talked over with 
these oflScers the propriety of sending a note to Lee 
suggesting the surrender of his army. 

There is no record of what Wright, Gibbon, or 
Ord said at this interview; but knowing that Ord 
had tried through his old army and fellow West 
Point friend, Longstreet, to bring about an inter- 
view between Grant and Lee the previous winter 



138 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

with a view to ending the war, I have no doubt that 
he urged it warmly. But perhaps what decided the 
matter in Grant's mind was that he knew from 
Sheridan's position that he would soon be across 
Lee's way at Appomattox as at Jetersville, and that 
Lee would then have to surrender. Hence he wrote 
to him as follows: — 

" Headquarters, 
" Armies of the United States, 
" April 7, 1865 — 5 p. m. 
" General R. E. Lee, 

"Commanding C. S. Army: 
" General: The result of the last week must con- 
vince you of the hopelessness of further resistance 
on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this 
struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my 
duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any 
further effusion of blood by asking of you the sur- 
render of that portion of the C. S. Army known as 
the Army of Northern Virginia. 
" Very respectfully, 

"Your obedient servant, 
"U. S. Grant, 
" Lieutenant-General, Commanding 
"Armies of the United States." 

Surely this momentous note could not have been 
pitched in a better key to still the sea of passion or 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 139 

turn the mind toward the paths of peace; and I am 
free to confess that whenever I ponder on this cam- 
paign there always emerges from its background of 
providential results, results so vast and beneficent, 
a vision of the country's good angel standing by 
Grant's side guiding his pen, what time soever he 
took it up to address Lee. 

Meanwhile Sheridan was pushing on from Prince 
Edward Court-House to Prospect Station; he ar- 
rived there about sundown and notified Grant that 
one of his scouts had reported that eight supply 
trains were at Appomattox Station for Lee's army, 
and that he would move his cavalry column thither. 
Grant in response told him to go ahead and that the 
Fifth corps, at that hour, seven p. m., going into 
bivouac at Prince Edward, and the Twenty-fourth, 
then in Farmville, would push after him. 

Grant sent word by Newhall, who had brought 
Sheridan's dispatch, that he had addressed Lee as to 
surrendering his army. Sheridan, however, put no 
faith in Lee paying any heed whatsoever to Grant's 
proposal, and gave orders for an early march to 
Appomattox Station. Crook reached Sheridan's 
bivouac about midnight, Friday. 

While Grant's peace-breathing letter is on its 
way to Lee, let me bring forward two complemental 
circumstances, both prophetic and freighted with 
historic interest, for they reveal how the trials of the 
last few days had breached the walls of the hitherto 



140 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

invincible confidence of final success that distin- 
guished the Army of Northern Virginia. The in- 
cidents referred to are these; first: 

About the very hour that Lee received Grant's 
letter, the regimental officers of the 11th North 
Carolina, McRae's brigade, held a conference, and 
Captain Ralph Edward Outlaw was charged to see 
that the battle-frayed colors, come weal, come woe, 
should not be parted with. Accordingly he took 
them from the staff, replaced their water-proof 
cover, and carried them in his breast. When, 
thirty-six hours later, Lee rode through the lines 
to meet Grant, the officers of the regiment retired 
to a thicket, raked together a pile of leaves, and 
committed the flag that had been carried on so 
many fields of glory to the flames. 

This speaks in unmistakable terms of how the 
coming crisis was felt through the line of the army. 
Now, as to the general officers. 

Sometime during the morning after the arrival of 
the army at Farmville, Gordon and a number of 
leading division and brigade commanders, Pickett 
among them, as I have every reason to believe, met 
and held a conference. After discussing the situa- 
tion, they came to the conclusion that the days of 
the Confederacy were numbered, and that some one 
should go to Lee and tell him so; and, if odium 
there were for asking terms of Grant, it should be 
allowed to fall on them alone for first making the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 141 

suggestion. They delegated Gordon to lay the 
matter before Pendleton, — Lee's chief of artillery 
and a West Point boyhood friend whose relations 
with his commander were as intimate as Lee's 
nature permitted any one's to be, — and further 
instructed Gordon to ask Pendleton, provided he 
felt as they did, to be the bearer of their message 
to Lee. Pendleton's account of his interview with 
Gordon is as follows: 

" Fighting was going on, but not very severely, 
so that conversation was practicable [it was in the 
afternoon and they were on the hills above Farm- 
ville]. General Gordon had with me an interview, 
told me of discouraging intelligence from the South, 
and of a conference which had been held between 
other responsible oflScers and himself, and announced 
their joint wish that, if my views agreed with theirs, 
I should convey to General Longstreet, as second in 
command, and then, if he agreed, to General Lee, 
our united judgment that the cause had become so 
hopeless we thought it wrong to be having men 
killed on either side, and not right, moreover, that 
our beloved commander should be left to bear the 
entire trial of initiating the idea of terms with the 
enemy. My judgment not conflicting with those 
expressed, it seemed to me my duty to convey them 
to General Lee. At first General Longstreet dis- 
sented, but on second thought preferred that he 
should be represented with the rest." 



142 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

The significance of the foregoing incident, not to 
be matched in purport by anything which occurred 
on that fateful march, leads me to ask the reader 
to let me interrupt Pendleton's account with a com- 
ment or two. 

Can any better proof be offered of the desperate- 
ness and hopelessness of Lee's situation? For were 
not Gordon and every one of his fellows at that con- 
ference perfectly familiar with the Articles of War, 
which provided that even to hint at surrender in 
the presence of an enemy was the most despicable 
sin a soldier could commit, that it was a military 
crime and called mutiny, carrying a death penalty 
which, if executed, is forever tainted by disgrace? 
No graduate of West Point and no one who ever wore 
a sword in time of war will fail to be impressed by 
the seriousness of what they did. Yet in the face 
of this dread danger, unshaken, they took that 
grandly moral, perilous step, but in taking it they 
rose to the level of the truly great. 

In one sense, Gordon and Pickett and every one 
involved could afford to take it, for the scars they 
bore and the records of the days of battle when they 
led, shamed out of sight all suspicion that the fires 
of their courage and loyalty had ceased to burn. 
The thought that these virtues failed them now would 
be an outrage to their memories. And moreover, as 
the calm light of the present falls on the scene of 
their conference, lo. Reason and Humanity stand 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 143 

there ready to establish that their courage was of 
the very highest type, a type loftier than Gordon's 
at Spottsylvania when he spurred his horse across 
Traveller's front, seized his bridle-rein and checked 
him, shouting to General Lee above the roar of the 
musketry at the Bloody Angle, " You must go to 
the rear! " or Pickett's when he set out with a 
cheery face to storm the lines at Gettysburg. 

And now let me tell you a strange fact, and one 
that I wish my eye had not fallen upon. When 
Gordon wrote his Reminiscences he disclaimed being 
present at the conference; and even brave old Long- 
street, whose last years were made so pitifully mis- 
erable by venomous attacks from brother soldiers 
with whom he had worn the gray, in his military 
Life says that he turned on Pendleton and inquired, 
" if he did not know that the Articles of War pro- 
vided that officers and soldiers who asked their 
commanding officers to surrender should be shot? " 

Let it be observed that, when Gordon and Long- 
street wrote their accounts of that conference, poor 
Pendleton and Lee were in their graves and the 
psean to Lee and the steadfastness of the Army of 
Northern Virginia was ringing loud. Oh, pale 
Retractions withering breath! and how weak we 
are, and how often we cringe before public opin- 
ion, abandoning and dismantling the strong works 
built by those royal engineers, the inward senses 
of Right and Duty ! 



144 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Whom, then, shall we believe? All I have to say is, 
that Pendleton was a gentleman and so was Gordon 
and so was Longstreet, and now they are across 
the river in a land beyond domineering opinion, 
where all earthly glories seem dim, and controversy 
never breathes. Green, forever green, I hope, will 
rest their laurels: they served the Confederacy well, 
they won a place by their manliness and valor in the 
hearts of North and South, they won a place, too, 
in the heart of Peace by that conference; and when 
she passes their graves or that of any one who said, 
" Let the odium fall on me," she whispers to her 
angelic companions, " Here lies the clay of a valiant 
man; he was a friend of mine on the hills of Farm- 
ville." 

But what was the nature of the discouraging in- 
telligence from the South that Gordon had spoken 
of to Pendleton, and how had it come to Gordon's 
ears, in view of the fact that all telegraph lines were 
cut? There are but two sources whence it could have 
come, namely, either through John S. Wise, who, so 
far as there is any record, was the only bearer of 
dispatches, and his were verbal, who reached Lee's 
army from the time it left Petersburg till it surren- 
dered; or through the commissary officers in charge 
of the trains that had come down to Farmville 
from Lynchburg. But how the discouraging intel- 
ligence was brought, is not so material as the charac- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 145 

ter of the news itself. That it must have been 
weighty, causing Gordon and the conference to 
suggest the surrender of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, goes without saying. What was it? At 
first, I thought it had to do with Johnston's army, 
but I am now convinced it was the capture of 
Selma, Alabama, on the 2nd of April, the Sunday 
when Lee evacuated Petersburg, by my life-long 
friend. Gen. James H. Wilson. Selma was the last 
of the South's main arsenals and depots of supplies, 
and its capture, accompanied, as it was, by the hit-herto 
invincible Forrest's absolute defeat, forbade all hope 
of stopping Wilson from sweeping, as he did, through 
the very heart of Alabama and Georgia, breaking up 
and destroying the railroads, completing Sherman's 
devastating work and leaving the South a mere frail 
and hollow shell doomed to be crushed, for there 
were no troops that could possibly be gathered 
to check him. 

Situated as the South then was, Johnston helpless 
in the presence of Sherman now reinforced by Scho- 
field, and Lee's army a mere shadow of its former 
self after the defeat of the day before at Sailor's 
Creek, Wilson's success, I believe, was paramount; it 
was the finishing blow to the Confederacy and made 
it only a matter of days, or weeks at farthest, when 
Lee and Johnston would have to lay down their 
arms. 

Such then, Wilson's fateful campaign and capture 



146 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

of Selma, was, in my opinion, the discouraging in- 
telligence referred to by Pendleton. It is possible that 
news of the fall of Selma might have reached Wise 
before he set out on his journey. In that case, when, 
on his way to Lee's headquarters from Farmville, 
he met, as he says he did, two general officers whom 
he knew, both very much cast down, declaring that 
all hope was gone, is it not probable that, learning 
whence he came, they asked him for the latest 
news from the South.'' And is it not likely that he 
told them all he knew? For who ever met one of 
that Wise blood yet, young or old, and did not find 
him a frank, transparent gentleman and courageously 
truthful, besides being mightily interesting and com- 
panionable .f* 

After explaining his mission to Lee and being told 
by him that it was unsafe to send any written com- 
munication to Mr. Davis on account of the danger 
of capture, and that he himself should be governed 
by each day's developments, young Wise caught a 
little sleep, went back to Farmville, saw his father, 
and then was off for Danville. 

Suppose, on the other hand, the news of the cap- 
ture of Selma and discomfiture of Forrest was brought 
down from Lynchburg by the quartermaster or com- 
missary officers in charge of the railway trains, how 
quickly it would have spread! for who ever met a 
quartermaster or a commissary anywhere in the rear 
during a campaign, that did not find him a fountain 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 147 

charged to the very brim with mysterious news and 
army gossip? Of course to have the fountain open 
freely you must treat him as a man of great impor- 
tance. 

Well, howsoever the "discouraging intelligence from 
the South " found its way to Farmville, you may rest 
assured it soon reached Gordon's ears and through 
him Breckinridge, the Confederate Secretary of 
War, who left Richmond, the burning capital, with 
Ewell. Now he and Gordon knew, and I think liked 
each other very well; they had shared together 
Early's disastrous campaign in the valley, each 
resenting Early's official report of the part their 
divisions had played, and, under these circumstances 
is it not reasonable to suppose that they discussed the 
situation in the light of Wilson's victory and opened 
their hearts to each other? May not Breckinridge 
casually have dropped the remark that Lee might 
just as well see Grant first as last now that Scho- 
field had united with Sherman and that there was 
not one chance in fifty of Lee being able, with his 
army in its then enfeebled condition, to accomplish 
anything against Sherman even if he did circum- 
vent Grant? 

It is true, there is no evidence that Breckinridge 
had any knowledge of the " discouraging intelli- 
gence," or that he said a word to any one who was at 
the conference, but I cannot believe for a moment 
that Gordon and his fellows were influenced to take 



148 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

the step they did by mere camp rumors. The South's 
grave situation as a whole must have been talked 
over, and no one knew its hopelessness better than 
the Secretary of War, and I cannot resist the con- 
clusion that, before the officers took the step they 
did, somebody in authority like a cabinet officer — 
the astute Secretary of State, Benjamin, was with 
Breckinridge also — had expressed an opinion which 
justified their action. 

Well, whether Breckinridge said a word or not to 
his old campaign friends, he left the army early 
that Friday morning for the Roanoke, and on the 
following day sent a dispatch from Red House to 
Mr. Davis saying, " I left General Lee at Farmville 
yesterday morning, where he was passing the main 
body across the river for temporary relief, . . . The 
straggling has been great, and the situation is not 
favorable." 



IX 



Now, to go back and take up the thread once more: 
Grant's note to Lee was given to Seth Williams, the 
Adjutant-General of the Army of the Potomac; 
and a more lovable and rarer man never walked the 
plain of old West Point as a boy, or as a man wore the 
army uniform. Moreover, when Lee was superin- 
tendent of the Academy, Williams had been his ad- 
jutant. 

Williams, having to go around by High Bridge, 
it was about half-past eight when he reached Hum- 
phreys in front of Gordon's Cumberland Church 
works. Passing through the skirmish line (it was 
then quite dark and no moon), he was soon chal- 
lenged by a member of the City Light Guards of 
Columbus, Georgia, in Sorrel's brigade, then under 
command of Colonel Tayloe. The gallant Sorrel 
was absent recovering from a desperate wound. 

The Confederate officer to whom the challenging 

picket reported the presence of the flag of truce that 

Friday night was Lieutenant G. J. Peacock of the 

Guards, who at once notified his superior officer. 

Major Moffett. The major came to the picket, and 

advancing in the darkness some thirty paces, called 

149 



150 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

out, " What is wanted? " " Important dispatches 
from General Grant to General Lee," answered 
Williams. " Stand where you are till I communi- 
cate,'* came back the response. 

A messenger was then sent to the brigade head- 
quarters, and the adjutant-general, A. H. Perry of 
Mahone's division, was directed to go and receive 
the note. This officer says that he buckled on his 
revolver, passed some fifty yards beyond their 
pickets, halted, and called for the flag. It was then 
about nine o'clock, and scattered about in the star- 
less woods were many of our dead and wounded, for 
it was the ground Miles had fought over. Williams 
answered the call; Perry came forward and " met," 
he says, " a very handsomely-dressed Federal 
officer. We stopped in front of each other, about 
seven or eight feet apart." Williams spoke first, 
announcing his name as of General Grant's staff; 
Perry then in turn made known who he was; where- 
upon Williams put his hand in his breast-pocket, as 
Perry supposed feeling for a document; instead of 
which he produced a silver-mounted flask and hoped 
that Perry would not think it unsoldierly courtesy 
if he were to offer him some fine brandy. Perry 
austerely declined the civility; Williams begged 
his pardon, and without comment replaced the 
flask. 

If ever there was one occasion in this world when 
brandy had a heaven-born mission, that was the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 151 

time, and I think Perry made a mighty big mistake, 
and he thought so, too, before he died. 

Under the circumstances, however (they were 
gloomy enough), he felt that to take a drink with 
an enemy would be undignified. But I don't be- 
lieve that would have hampered you, reader, at all, 
for I have a notion that, besides being companionable, 
you are also a chivalrous sort of fellow. Off would 
have gone your hat, and out would have gone your 
hand — and lifting the flask, you would have said, 
" Here's to you, with my best respects ! " and taken 
a good long pull. And had Perry done as you would 
have done, I have no doubt Williams would have ex- 
claimed with beaming face, for he always looked as 
if he carried a harp in his breast, " Thank you, 
colonel, thank you, and drink right heartily, my 
soldier friend! " 

Perry having rather haughtily declined the prof- 
fered courtesy, Williams produced the dispatch, 
expressing the hope that it would be delivered 
promptly to General Lee. Then they bowed pro- 
foundly and parted. Within a few paces Williams 
met a member of Miles 's staff in search of a friend 
among the wounded. Being told that this officer 
had several letters and family pictures found in 
Mahone's personal baggage, captured that after- 
noon, which he wished to return, Williams called 
back to Perry and asked him if he would meet the 
oflScer. Perry answered " Yes," and retracing his 



152 THE SUNSET OP THE CONFEDERACY 

steps, took Mahone's effects, and offered to do, and 
did, sometliing for our wounded. Williams, mean- 
while, made the best of his way to Humphreys' 
headquarters. 

The dispatch was forwarded promptly to Lee, 
who was not far off, and alone with Longstreet, 
who, by the way, had not yet seen Pendleton. 
After reading it Lee, without referring to its con- 
tents, handed it to Longstreet, who read it, and as 
he returned the note made the sole remark, " Not 
yet." 

Without consulting Longstreet further, Lee re- 
sponded to Grant as follows : — 

"April 7, 1865. 
" General, — 

" I have received your note of this date. Though 
not entertaining the opinion you express on the 
hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the 
Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your de- 
sire to avoid the useless effusion of blood, and there- 
fore, before considering your proposition, ask the 
terms you will offer on condition of its surrender. 

" R. E, Lee, General. 

"Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant." 

Within an hour Lee's reply was received at Hum- 
phreys' headquarters, and Williams started with it 
to Grant; but having to take the circuitous route 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 153 

by way of High Bridge, he did not reach Grant at 
Farmville till midnight. 

Meanwhile, without waiting for Grant's answer 
to his question as to terms, Lee consolidated his 
army into two corps, Longstreet's and Gordon's, 
and I have authority for saying that about this 
time he directed that orders be issued dismissing 
Pickett, Anderson and others. Fortunately the or- 
der was withheld, but Anderson left the army that 
night. By ten o'clock Lee's men were moving toward 
Appomattox, and in the light of this fact, is there any- 
thing plainer than that, when he asked Grant as to 
the character of the terms he would give, he had no 
intention whatsoever of accepting them, let them be 
what they might .f* His answer was a parry pure 
and simple. But his enforced delay at Farmville 
to enable his trains to get out of the way, made it 
utterly impossible for him to realize his hopes. 

And yet I can hear a student of war, whose whole 
life is devoted to reassembling the bones of dead 
campaigns, ask sternly, " Why did Lee not concen- 
trate every soldier and attack Humphreys? neither 
Wright nor any of the troops at Farmville could 
have come to his help in time to have served him." 
Well, proud Gentleman of the Sword, if you ever 
go through a war like that which this narrative is 
dealing with, and after four years of it you should 
make a retreat like that from Petersburg, I will, to 
use the language of Izaak Walton, go you twenty to 



154 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

one that you will not press the question. For so 
well will you learn that there is so much to be taken 
into account in actual warfare, of which experience 
alone can give any idea, that to ask why this or 
that was done will never enter your mind. 

But little, little does it matter now. Student of 
War, what Lee might have done that day on the 
hills above Farmville. Doom was throwing the 
last shovelfuls out of the grave of the Confederacy; 
and Slavery's inveterate enemies. Humanity and 
Freedom, were standing there looking down into 
it and demanding that it be dug sufficiently deep. 

But lift your eyes : there on the Future's dawning 
sky is the flush of better days to come, days of peace, 
days without lament and full of national splendor. 
So, let the Army of Northern Virginia have been 
called upon to do this or that, nothing could stay 
God's march of events on this our church-spired 
world. 

Therefore let us not speculate on what Lee might 
have done, but go on with the narrative; for it is 
toward midnight and his army is moving again, 
moving silently away from its fainting camp-fires. 
The cavalry, who are to bring up the rear, are 
mounting their gaunt horses, and the division offi- 
cers of the day are withdrawing the pickets. Far 
in the lead is Lindsay Walker's column of surplus 
artillery, that had reached Lee's position at 
Farmville from Amelia by way of Cumberland 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 155 

Court -House early that Friday morning and 
taken the road to Appomattox Court - House, 
camping that night at New Store. In this column 
were, among others, Hardaway's, Lightfoot's, Strib- 
ling's, Leyden's and John Lane's battalions. Lane, 
I knew very well at West Point. He was large, 
slow, good-natured, and had dull black eyes. His 
father was a United States Senator from Oregon and 
ran for Vice-President with Breckinridge on the 
ticket of the Southern wing of the Democratic 
party against Mr. Lincoln. Lane's classmates 
sometimes called him the Senator, and the " Sena- 
tor " dearly loved the atmosphere of the " Immor- 
tals," the men at the foot of West Point classes, 
many of whom, like Custer and Sheridan, became 
truly Immortals. 

In Stribling's battalion, originally the 38th Vir- 
ginia, commanded by Dearing until he was promoted 
to a brigadier generalcy, is Blount's battery, first 
known as Latham's, organized at Lynchburg on 
the breaking out of the war. Blount was in my class, 
from Georgia, and a sweeter, more lovable boy I 
never met. He was scarcely medium height, had 
such a modest, earnest, sincere face, such naturally 
kind eyes, — they were open and dark, — and a heart 
that never knew any other beat than that of friend- 
ship and good will. " Joe" — his name was Joseph 
R. — and I lived on the same floor in the " Angle " 
at West Point, and night after night, and day after 



156 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

day, we visited back and forth. My room mate was 
John Asbury West, another Georgian — oh, God, 
bless his memory — and when the war came on 
and they left the Academy to go with their state, 
tender, tender was the parting with " Joe " and 
John. 

Blount's battery is in the lead of Walker's 
column, Bushrod Johnson's division, assigned to 
Gordon and composed of Wise's, Wallace's, and 
Moody's brigades, is behind Walker, and then comes 
Gordon's old corps, followed by Longstreet's, Fitz 
Lee's cavalry bringing up the rear. They are on 
two roads, the Stage and the Plank, which meet at 
New Store about half-way to Appomattox. Both 
are bad, very bad in some places, and at a certain 
point Lee's headquarters wagons are being lightened 
by the destruction of letters and papers — a sig- 
nificant portent. And now, leaving them to trudge 
on, let us turn to the Army of the Potomac. 

While Lee's troops, weary, sleepy, and heavy- 
hearted, were pickmg up their guns and leaving 
their little camp-fires to take the road for Appo- 
mattox, Wright's Sixth corps was marching through 
the village of Farmville to the bridge across the 
river. On their way they spied Grant observing them 
from the piazza of the hotel, and my life-long and 
brilliant friend, Horace Porter, of his staff, says, 
" Bonfires were lighted on the sides of the streets, 
the men seized straw and pine-knots and impro- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 157 

vised torches, cheers arose from throats already 
hoarse with shouts of victory, bands played, banners 
waved. The night march had become a grand re- 
view, with Grant as the reviewing officer." 

Army of Northern Virginia, what a contrast! 
But march on ! you, too, are passing in review, — 
passing in review before History, who, with tablet 
and pen in hand, stands between the lofty columns 
of her porch, and Valor with moistening eyes is 
by her side. That other figure standing deep in the 
shadow is Fate. 

Meanwhile Ord's troops are in bivouac at Farm- 
ville, Sheridan's in and about Prospect Station, and 
the Fifth corps, under tall, hollow-cheeked Griffin, is 
at Prince Edward Court - House resting after its 
twenty-eight-mile march. 

One of Sheridan's regimental surgeons, in giving 
an account of overtaking his command that night, 
after having attended, as I assume, some of the 
wounded at Sailor's Creek, says that the camp-fires 
of the encampments of artillery and infantry red- 
dened the sky in every direction; that of those along 
the roadside, some burned brightly, some faintly, 
but every one had its group of weary men seeking, 
and I hope finding, refreshment and rest. " As the 
light played over the forms and faces of these men," 
says Surgeon Rockwell, " and those that were sleep- 
ing, with here and there a blood-stained bandage; 
and as it reflected from the stacked arms, and pene- 



158 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

trated woody recesses revealing still other groups 
of blue-coated soldiers, scenes were presented well 
worthy to be reproduced upon canvas." To this 
vivid picture should be added the indistinct forms 
of the drowsing horses. 

Yet, reader, for loneliness — and every aide who 
like myself has carried dispatches will bear witness 
to the truth of what I say — give me a park of 
army-wagons in some wan old field wrapt in dark- 
ness at the dead hours of a moonless night, men and 
mules asleep, camp-fires breathing their last, and the 
beams of day, which wander in the night, resting 
ghost-like on the arched and mildewed canvas 
covers. 

Lee's army, meanwhile, was marching as fast as 
their condition, weakened by hunger, would allow. 
Apparently each man and organization grew indiffer- 
ent to what happened to others; and when any of 
the wagons or caissons got mired, or the faltering 
teams gave out, they did not stop to extricate them, 
but after cutting down the wheels of the artillery and 
setting fire to the supply-trains, went on. Lee him- 
self passed through the village of Curdsville about 
midnight, and dawn Saturday morning found him 
and his weary army well away from Farmville. 

Yet let them make the best time they could, 
demoralization was growing and spreading with equal 
speed. A Confederate surgeon, John Herbert Clai- 
borne of Petersburg, says of the march after daylight, 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 159 

that there were abundant signs of disintegration all 
along the road; that whole trains were abandoned, 
ammunition and baggage dumped out, and every- 
where muskets thrown away or, with their bayonets 
fixed, stuck deep in the ground. Soldiers who, he 
knew, had been men of steadiness and courage, 
straggled unarmed, or lay down and slept apparently 
unconcerned. He says also that he saw officers of 
the line as well as colonels and distinguished generals 
doing the same thing; a staff officer of one of the 
latter dismounted and threw himself down, uttering 
an oath that he never would draw his sword from 
its scabbard again. 

About noon, the doctor met Lee's inspector- 
general. Colonel Peyton, posting some men, not 
over a hundred of them, on a knoll from whose bare 
top they could see in the distance off to the left some 
of Sheridan's cavalry then hastening to Appomattox 
Station. 

Claiborne asked Colonel Peyton what command he 
was posting, and the response came back slowly and 
sadly, " That is what is left of the First Virginia." 
It belonged to Pickett's celebrated Gettysburg di- 
vision, a mere remnant, for it had been nearly an- 
nihilated at Five Forks. 

" Does General Lee know how few of his soldiers 
are left.'' " asked the doctor, " or to what extremities 
they are reduced.^* " " I don't believe he does," re- 
plied Peyton. " Then whose business is it to tell 



160 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

him if not his inspector-general's? " blurted out 
Claiborne; and here we see again how the spirit 
of the night before had spread. Peyton with sad 
emphasis answered, " I cannot, I cannot; " and 
I have no doubt that to the end of his days he was 
glad of the decision he came to. For this world loves 
the man who stands by his captain till the ship goes 
down. 

It may have been that Pendleton at that very 
hour was conveying to his chief the message Gordon 
had asked him to carry. Here at any rate is what 
Pendleton says in reference to its delivery: 

" General Lee was lying down resting at the base 
of a large pine tree. I approached and sat by him. 
To a statement of the case he quietly listened, and 
then, courteously expressing his thanks for the con- 
sideration of his subordinates in daring to relieve 
him in part of the existing burdens, spoke in about 
these words: ' I trust it has not come to that; we 
certainly have too many brave men to think of lay- 
ing down our arms. They still fight with great spirit, 
whereas the enemy does not. And besides, if I were 
to intimate to General Grant that I would listen to 
terms, he would at once regard it as such evidence 
of weakness that he would demand unconditional 
surrender, and sooner than that I am resolved to die. 
Indeed, we must all be determined to die at our 
posts.' 

" My reply could only be that every man would 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 161 

no doubt cheerfully meet death with him in dis- 
charge of duty, and that we were perfectly willing 
that he should decide the question." 

Let me make one comment on Pendleton's state- 
ment. He says that Lee declared that our army did 
not fight with spirit. This is astonishing. In view 
of Five Forks with its heavy losses on both sides, 
the assaults on his works around Petersburg, which 
were carried only by the most desperate resolution 
and gallantry, — indeed, it may be said, with slaugh- 
ter unparalleled during the war, — the stubborn 
cavalry engagements at Jetersville and High Bridge, 
the sanguinary field of Sailor's Creek, in view of all 
these combats is it not inconceivable that Lee 
should have said that our men lacked spirit.'* Go 
ask any living veteran of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia whether our troops quailed from the day the 
campaign began till their general. Cox, fired the 
last volley at Appomattox. No, no. General Pen- 
dleton, you certainly misunderstood General Lee, or 
General Lee was amazingly misinformed: never, 
never, did the old Army of the Potomac show more 
spirit. 

But that Lee said he would never submit to un- 
conditional surrender is no doubt true, for he knew 
how the South rebelled at the thought of Buckner 
submitting to Grant's terms of unconditional sur- 
render of Fort Donelson and in what universal 
scorn and resentment it held Pemberton for sub- 



162 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

mitting to Grant's terms at Vicksburg; and rather 
than follow In the steps of either Buckner or Pem- 
berton he would lay his life down. Pendleton, after 
discharging his delicate mission, rode for a while with 
Alexander and told him of his interview. Alexander 
says that he got the impression from his manner that 
he had been snubbed by Lee. I hope, however, he 
was entirely mistaken. 

But let us proceed with the march, the Confeder- 
ate army's last. Walker's command of sixty-odd 
guns, accompanied by a guard of two artillery 
companies equipped as infantry, reached the vi- 
cinity of Appomattox Station by three p. m., and 
there, in supposed security, unharnessed, and started 
little fires to cook what they had foraged on the 
march, all looking forward gladly to several hours 
of refreshing rest. 

Wallace's, leading brigade of Gordon's corps, 
and next in line to the surplus artillery, went into 
camp about sundown, within a mile or so of Appo- 
mattox Court-House; the rest of the corps lay between 
Wallace and New Hope Church. Mcintosh's bat- 
talion of batteries, and that of Haskell's, were on the 
banks of Rocky Run, the bordering fields and road- 
sides packed with guns, wagons and ambulances. 
Except the batteries, the column of trains had lost 
all semblance of organization. 

Longstreet, bringing up the rear, Fitzhugh Lee's 
cavalry between him and Humphreys' advance, 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 163 

gained Holiday's Creek, six or seven miles east of 
New Hope Church, about sunset, but he did not go 
into bivouac till near eleven p. m., and before his 
men closed their eyes they threw a heavy line of 
entrenchments across the road. 

It had been a pleasant day, the sun had shone 
brightly, and, from time to time, soft refreshing 
breezes had blown; and I have no doubt that the 
sunshine and fresh breezes were made sweeter by 
the fact that it was the first day since the Army 
of Northern Virginia crossed the Appomattox at 
Goode's Bridge that it had been free from harass- 
ing attacks by our cavalry. 

Lee camped in the open wood on the top of the 
first ridge beyond the Appomattox, and on the east 
side of the road, a hundred yards or so from it on 
gently rising ground. Near by, and towering high 
over his camp-fire, was a large white oak. So, then, 
having established the weary, supperless men in their 
bivouacs, let us leave them to their sleep, which I 
know came quickly, for they were tired. Night and 
the listening fields and woods, which as soon as dark- 
ness falls always becomes suddenly vast, reflectively 
conscious personalities, were around them; over 
them were fast-moving, patchy, sinister clouds 
dimming the Milky Way, that starry bivouac of the 
heavens' marching systems. Gaunt care, I have no 
doubt, drove sleep away from more than one officer 
and man. For were they to be subjected to harsh 



164 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

terms at the surrender which something told them 
was coming, and then to a march of humiHation 
through the cities of the North, to Point Lookout, 
Fort Delaware, Elmira, and Johnson's Island, as 
prisoners of war? What months of confinement and 
agonies of body and mind were in store for them? 
These were hovering, living questions. But vet- 
erans, looking with thoughtful eyes into your camp- 
fires and dreading the future, none, none of those 
bitter experiences will come to you; on the contrary, 
you will receive kind terms, and chaplets will be 
yours at last. For this country will feel a glorious 
national pride in your fortitude, your soul-stirring 
valor, and your loyalty to her when the storm of 
war shall be over. Who, who are to be the heroes 
of the Army of Northern Virginia, then, if not you 
— you who, like gold tried in the furnace, stood by 
colors and cause to the end? 



X 



And now let me say a word of the lay of the land 
where Lee's camp-fires glittered along the Lynch- 
burg road. Following the road that bears north- 
eastward from the Appomattox, lone and bushy 
ravine-scored fields tilt up for a mile, at least, to 
a timbered ridge circling south westward around the 
birthplace of the river. The challenging note of a 
chanticleer perched in the old village on a November 
starlit night, with the wind from the south or the 
east, can be heard, I think, clear to the ferny tips 
of the river's source. 

This ridge, where it is crossed by the old road, 
is flattish, crowned with woods, and about half 
a mile wide, breaking down sharply on its northern 
side into the bed of Rocky Run, a pleasant brook that 
goes gurgling around the ridge's base and falls into 
the Appomattox about a mile below the Court-House. 
Beyond the run the ground begins at once to rise in 
a long commanding incline to the top of a higher 
ridge. As you follow the road upward, on each side 
are beautiful, leaning and dipping fields, and when 
I was there last October, in one of them on the right 

166 



166 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

lay a flock of Southdown sheep, and opposite, amid 
venerable trees and somewhat away from the road, 
was an old brick mansion house, called Pleasant 
Retreat masked by dooryard trees, overlooking 
dreamily the generous plantation. 

At the top of the second ridge, the divide between 
the Appomattox and James, the road enters woods 
and then sweeps directly to the east by New Hope 
Church on toward New Store and Farmville. The 
prevailing timber through which it bears its course, 
leaving a track almost as red as brick, is oak, and 
roamed by wild turkeys. The other day, as I was 
following it, a half-grown one scurried across it 
ahead of me and disappeared in the leafy silence. I 
halted when I came to the spot, but could neither 
see nor hear him; may he live to grow to a ripe old 
age, a stately, fleet, and beautiful ornament of the 
woods' sun-dappled loneliness. 

The Appomattox, whose murmur can almost be 
heard at the old Court-House hamlet, is nothing 
more than a good-sized willow-fringed run, that 
an ordinary coatless country boy, with even a 
short start, can clear from bank to bank, landing 
on the turf with the usual sense of having performed 
a feat; a sense to which I can testify, for more than 
once, bareheaded and barefooted, I leaped a run of 
about the same size that wanders through the fields of 
the old home farm; and I hope that, as I write, the 
elecampane and ironweed are blooming golden and 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 167 

purple there as in my youth, and that off on the gray 
stake-and-ridered fence which runs by the old wild- 
cherry tree, the last of the primeval forest of my child- 
hood, a bob-white sings to his mate mothering her 
covey in the clover-field. 

The rivers' birthplaces are at the feet of shoul- 
dering knobs, covered with monarch oak, and from 
any one of them you can overlook the old Court- 
House village, and all the scene of the last 
struggle. 

And now, before telling you, reader, of the move- 
ments of the Army of the Potomac on that same Sat- 
urday, April 8, let me first say that Grant on the 
evening of the seventh, after sending his first note 
to Lee, issued orders for Humphreys and Wright to 
pursue the enemy with vigor in the morning on what- 
soever roads he might take, and for Ord's command 
to follow Sheridan up the railroad toward Appo- 
mattox Station, since it was obvious that, to gain 
Lynchburg, Lee, confined to the narrow divide be- 
tween the Appomattox and the James, would have to 
cross there at its outlet. It is quite clear that these 
orders, all issued before receiving a reply to his letter, 
show that Grant did not expect Lee to halt in his 
tracks and surrender at once. 

Before leaving Farmville Saturday morning, the 
8th, Grant repHed to Lee's inquiries which he had 
made in his letter, already given, as to terms, and as 
will be seen they were quite explicit. 



168 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

" April 8, 1865. 

" General, — Your note of last evening, in reply 
to mine of the same date, asking the condition on 
which I will accept the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, I 
would say that peace being my great desire, there is 
but one condition I would insist upon, namely: 
that the men and officers surrendered shall be dis- 
qualified for taking up arms again against the 
Government of the United States until properly 
exchanged. I will meet you, or will designate officers 
to meet any officers you might name for the same 
purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for the 
purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon which 
the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia 
will be received. 

" U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 

" General R. E. Lee." 

This letter was direct, candid, and generous, and 
brought the issue squarely to Lee, inasmuch as, 
where or whensoever it might reach him, he would 
have to make up his mind to one of two courses: 
to yield to the inevitable, a spectre that had been 
haunting him for many a day, or to take his chances 
to escape from it by further retreat and battle. He 
chose the latter. 

This important communication, like the first, was 
put into the hands of Seth Williams for delivery. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 169 

In due time that sunny-hearted man, who rode 
through Humphreys' troops, came up with the ene- 
my's rear-guard of cavalry, and, although he was dis- 
playing a flag, was fired on, and his orderly wounded. 
He had to make several approaches to the line, and 
at last gained the attention of an officer of some sense, 
who ordered his ill-trained men to desist from firing on 
the flag of truce. Williams, on handing him Grant's 
letter, asked to have it forwarded promptly to Lee, 
and to make it clear to his immediately superior 
officer that hostilities would not be suspended on 
account of the communication he had given him. 

But before Williams started on this mission from 
Farmville, day had broken pleasantly, and to the 
call of the bugles all of Humphreys' and Wright's 
troops had stepped off briskly in pursuit of Lee. All, 
did you say.^ All of the Army of the Potomac .^^ 

No, not quite all. Up where Miles had made his 
resolute assault at Cumberland Church, just as the 
sun was setting the night before, were many in 
blue and gray whom no earthly bugle could wake; 
there, boys of twenty were sleeping on, waiting in 
peace for that other trumpet, the one at the lips of 
an angel who, on resurrection's morning, shall sound 
for us all. Poor fellows. Northern and Southern, had 
your lives lasted but two days more, you would have 
heard the bands at Appomattox playing " Home, 
Sweet Home." 

Humphreys, with Miles in the lead, had taken the 



170 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Stage road, Wright the Plank, for New Store. Hum- 
phreys did not get to New Store till about five p. m. 
At that hour Wright was at Curdsville, about seven 
miles from New Store. Humphreys sent word to 
Meade that the enemy were reported as about four 
miles ahead, and asked if he should halt to let the 
rear close up (that is, Wright's Sixth corps) and have 
rations issued. After resting a little while, and with- 
out waiting to hear from Meade, he renewed the 
march till half-past six, and by that time Miles with 
the advance was near Holiday's Creek. 

At 6 :55, just after the sun had set and Humphreys 
had gone into camp, Meade's reply to his dispatch 
came, saying, " Push on to-night until you come up 
with the enemy. No attack is ordered, but it is 
desirable to have the army up to him." — " Have 
the army up to him! " In that command I hear the 
ring of the iron in the blood of old George Gordon 
Meade. 

Humphreys in reply said that, although it was 
against his judgment, he would obey the order, but 
that the men were exhausted and without rations. 
In a postscript he added that Miles at that moment 
sent word that the enemy, Longstreet's corps, were 
encamped on the first high ground in front of him, 
and that he had directed him to push forward his 
skirmishers and feel them. 

Before this order could be executed, the enemy had 
moved on, but the corps, tired as it was, resumed its 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 171 

march in the falling darkness. The men had to 
yield at last, however, to fatigue and hunger, and 
at ten o'clock the leading division went into biv- 
ouac. The head of the rear division did not reach the 
halting-place till four a. m. Sunday. Nearly twenty- 
five miles had been covered and the day had been 
warm; they deserved and I hope enjoyed a night of 
sweet rest. The camp-fires of some of them were 
on the banks of Holiday's Creek, and as their eyes 
were closing to its murmurs the dull boom of guns 
away to the southwest went floating by. Boom! 
boom! boom! and Wonder asked sleepily, " What 
is that? " It was Sheridan, at Appomattox Station, 
planting himself squarely across the road to Lynch- 
burg. 

Meade, setting out from camp at High Bridge, 
overtook Humphreys about eight o'clock a. m., just 
after Williams with Grant's second letter had gone 
forward, and Lyman says that as they kept along 
the road they came on General Williams returning 
from the front. Meade, at eleven-thirty, had got 
to the house of a Mr. Elam, where they rested the 
horses for a spell, and then over a wide road full of 
boulders and holes they came to Crutes, a large 
white house on the left side of the road. Just before 
reaching there Grant overtook them and said to 
Meade, " How are you, old fellow.'' " As will be 
remembered, Meade had not been at all well for 
three or four days. That night, Saturday, the 



172 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

eighth they both made their headquarters at 
Crutes. 

Now let us turn to Sheridan and Ord, and not forget 
that this is Saturday morning. 

While the dew was still sparkling and the feet of 
grazing cows and quick nibbling sheep trailed the 
pastures, Sheridan's cavalry poured out of the 
fields and woods around Prospect Station, and with 
Custer in advance set off up the railroad for Appo- 
mattox Station, which is about two or three miles 
south of the Court-House. Behind the cavalry 
came Ord's infantry from Farmville, Turner's di- 
vision of Gibbon's Twenty -fourth corps leading them, 
and then Griffin from Prince Edward Court-House, 
with Chamberlain of Maine, that hero and scholar, 
at the head. For the sake of the memory of the night 
when I rode with Warren on our way from the Wil- 
derness, where this corps had left so many of its 
gallant men, I wish that I could have seen them march 
by on that sunshiny morning, — not only the Fifth 
corps, but all of that column. 

Reader and friend, on second thought I have some- 
thing to propose to you, and, much as it will delay 
the narrative, I hope it will strike you pleasantly. 
Let us find some suitable spot by the roadside from 
which we can see those veterans go by; for before 
the sun sets to-morrow their marching will be over 
and the old Army of the Potomac, that I served 
with as a boy, will pass through the Gates of Peace 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 173 

and enter the Land of Dreams. I want you to see 
them, too, for I beheve you feel a pride in the glory 
their courage has brought the country. I marched 
with them on many campaigns, — Chancellors- 
ville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and thence through 
the bloody fields of Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor 
to the James. Do you wonder then that I long to 
look once more at the regiments and batteries, and 
lift my hat to those brave men whose oft-repeated 
display of valor made my heart beat? And if, when 
some dear old friend goes by, you should see tears 
dropping from my eyes, never mind, never mind, — 
the sight will bring back such appealing memories. 

Break off that spray of budding laurel and bring 
it along. It will indicate that what is in your heart 
is in your hand, that you would like if you could 
to wreathe it around the brows of more than one of 
those boys. For they are only boys, after all; their 
average age is under twenty-one. 

I wish we could find a good, overlooking spot. 
How will that little elevation down there in the 
valley answer; that rises like an old-fashioned bee- 
hive on the left of the road and has a brotherhood 
of four or five big-limbed oaks crowning it, one of 
them leaning somewhat .^^ Admirably! We are 
lucky as usual: here is a pair of bars, and we shall 
not have to climb this old Virginia rail-fence; but 
let us be sure to put the bars up, for nothing is more 
provoking, nothing shows worse breeding, than to 



174 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

leave a farmer's gates open or his bars down. Well, 
here we are: oaks spreading above us, at our feet 
violets, liverwort, and spring beauties scattered 
among acorn hulls, dead leaves, and clustered 
grass. What a reviewing stand, and so near the 
road that we shall be able to distinguish faces! 
Truly we have chosen a pleasant spot; let us sit 
down and enjoy it till they come. 

How graciously the road greets us as it emerges 
from those thick primeval woods yonder to our right 
and how cool and fresh its earthy track looks as it 
comes gliding down between the fields toward us! 
Why, it almost sings, — I'm a brother of the morn- 
ing and my sweetheart is the dawn. 

And is not this leaning valley in front of us sweet? 
How the wavering fences and the heaving fields en- 
tice the eye farther and farther up and off north- 
ward, until at last it rests on distant woods and the 
peace of vast solitary, traveling clouds! Do you 
know that under those very clouds the Army of 
Northern Virginia is marching at this very moment .^^ 
How peacefully beneficent they look! I wonder if 
heaven in her sympathy has not set them a-sailing 
so that their shadows may comfort our enemies, — 
for the day is warm and their hearts are low. I 
wish we could review them also, for perhaps I might 
see some old West Point friend, and I think he would 
speak to me, and I should like to slip a sandwich into 
his hand, for I know he is hungry. But whether I 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 175 

should see one or not, I know I would wave the laurel 
to more than one of those Confederate regiments. 

But upon my soul we could not have found a 
better place had we looked for weeks. Note how 
the road climbs up athwart the open hill at our left 
beyond this lusty, blessed run, the gurgling child of 
the valley before us; and I'll warrant you that there 
^,re minnows, dace, and, maybe, shiners in some of 
its pools, and that I could find a cardinal's or a cat- 
bird's nest somewhere along its willow- and alder- 
covered banks. Those master songsters, like the 
thrush, love quiet places like this. And do you note 
the regular, intermittent pauses in the beat of the 
wings of that bird, which is coming from the woods 
to the oaks? It's a flicker, for I know his undulating 
jBight right well. And do you hear that meadow- 
lark .^^ He is up there in that shouldered pasture where 
you see a few sumacs near a settlement of big boul- 
ders, travelers from ages gone by that are resting a 
while; and as he sings to his golden-breasted mate, 
who knows if his song does not set the stern travelers 
dreaming of the world's first morning, just as the 
thrush's sets the fields dreaming of its first evening.? 
But, like the flicker, what a naturally wild bird is 
the lark ! 

Surely the old road hears many a wild trilling 
song and runs by many a pleasant scene, but not one 
is sweeter than this or more suited to serve an in- 
nocent purpose like ours. For we can see the troops 



176 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

coming and going, and follow them as they climb 
the hill, until banners and men disappear beyond 
its pastured crest. But here they come! 

The cavalry brigade at the head of the column this 
morning is Pennington's, of Custer's division, and 
when its commander rides by I will point him out to 
you, for he is a friend, and as was said of Sir George 
Beaumont, the intimate of Wordsworth and Cole- 
ridge, he is inherently a gentleman. The regiment 
that is now approaching in the advance is the Second 
New York, and that behind it is the Third New 
Jersey. The colonel of the former is Alanson M. 
Randol, and when he rides by, you will see that he 
has thin, straight, light red hair, blue eyes and a 
spare face; and I wish that you could hear him sing, 
for he has a fine tenor voice, which on many a summer 
night at West Point I heard rising high and clear as 
he led a group of his fellow cadets, who used to 
gather at the head of some company street during 
encampment, and, seated in a circle on camp-stools in 
their gray fatigue jackets and white trousers, sing 
the evening away. It is this regiment that will cap- 
ture the four trains at Appomattox to-night, and 
then, with the rest of the brigade and division, at 
last, and notwithstanding musketry, canister, and 
darkness, will gain the Lynchburg road, and force 
the surrender of Lee to-morrow. 

Bless my heart! Here comes Custer now, and 
riding by his side are Pennington and Randol; 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 177 

Custer, a major-general, Pennington, a brigadier, 
and not one of the three has yet seen his twenty- 
seventh birthday. They were all fellow cadets, 
and I will wager you that this very moment they are 
talking about those old West Point days; for no 
matter when or where we graduates meet, soon, 
very soon, we are back at that beautiful spot on the 
Hudson and living over the days of our youth. 

But do look at Custer, for he was one of my close 
friends and we passed many a happy hour together. 
Did you ever in all your life see any man more spec- 
tacularly dressed .f* That broad upturned sombrero, 
those long yellow locks, that ohve-green corduroy suit 
tinseled lavishly with gold braid, those huge roweled 
spurs, and that long, flowing scarlet necktie! Just 
look, too, at the length of the sabre scabbard and 
the gold knots dangling from the sword's hilt, and 
note also those pistols in his high cavalry boots. 

But don't misjudge him: Custer is only a great 
big jolly boy, and no one ever had a better friend, 
and no foe an antagonist with more generosity of 
spirit. I wish you could catch his mischievous 
smile and hear his merry laugh. 

I declare I believe he sees us. He does. — " Hello, 
Morris! Hello, ' Old Shoaf ' ! " Yes, yes, I hear 
you, Custer, Pennington, and Randol. Yes, I hear 
you, but my heart is too full to answer; I can only 
murmur as the tears fall, " God bless each of you! " 
Wave, wave your laurel, reader, and keep on waving 



178 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

it till the mist clears away from my swimming eyes. 
And, if some one should ever ask you, " Why did 
they call him ' Old Shoaf ' ? " tell them it was a 
niclaiame he got at West Point. 

That regiment now passing is the First Connecti- 
cut, and I wish to call your attention to its major, 
Goodwin; and near him is Lieutenant Lanfare. 
Those two brave oflScers each captured a gun at 
Five Forks, only a few days ago, when after repeated 
charges, with Pennington at the head, the brigade 
carried the enemy's breastworks. There goes the 
Second Ohio. I have a pride in my native state; 
let us lift our hats to the Second, and to them all. 

That man at the head of the Fifteenth New York 
is Colonel Coppinger, and when I saw him first he 
was an aide, I believe, on Sheridan's staff. He is one 
of several young Irish gentlemen who came over and 
offered their services to our country, and braver or 
wittier men never graced a camp. 

The lieutenant-colonel, on the white horse, is 
Augustus I. Root, and to-night, at the very end of the 
battle, he will charge into the village of Appomattox 
Court-House and there meet a volley from Wallace's 
Confederate brigade and fall dead from his charger; 
and to-morrow morning a tender-hearted Confed- 
erate lady, before whose house he has fallen, will 
have his body brought from the road and buried in 
her yard. And when, after the war is over, his family 
shall come to take his body home, do you know, she 



THE SUNSET OP THE CONFEDERACY 179 

will gather some flowers from the garden to deck his 
coflSn! 

" Who is that colored woman riding in state in that 
old-fashioned family coach, drawn by two mules, 
among the headquarter wagons and led horses bring- 
ing up the rear of Custer's division? " 

Well, my friend, — I might address you as 
Stranger, but I think you are closer to me than that, 
— that's Eliza, Custer's cook. He picked her up near 
the Blue Ridge on one of his campaigns in that lovely 
region. I don't know where he laid his hands on the 
coach. But this I know, that, at the fierce battle 
of Trevilian last summer, Eliza and all of Custer's 
and Pennington's private baggage were captured. 
That night, after the brigade had got out of a very 
tight place and gone into bivouac, Custer and Pen- 
nington, while lounging before their camp-fires, 
heard cheering up the road. Pretty soon the cheer- 
ing broke out again, but this time it was stronger 
and nearer. " What does that mean.f* " they asked 
each other; and when they went out to learn the 
cause, there came Eliza, the men lining the road and 
cheering her at every step. 

It seems that her mounted captors, while marching 
her off the field, told her to throw down a high fence 
in their way; but instead of beginning at the top rail 
she pulled out a low one, bolted through, took to her 
heels among young pines, and then with native 
shrewdness struck off in the direction she thought 



180 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

our troops had taken; and there she was, ready to get 
Custer's breakfast as usual. Of all the Army of the 
Potomac to-day, Eliza is the only one riding in state, 
and I've no doubt that at this very moment she is 
canvassing in her mind whether the coffee and sugar 
amid the trumpery with which her mud-spattered 
vehicle is loaded, will hold out till the campaign 
is over. It will; don't worry about it, Eliza; ride 
on without a care. 

But what a contrast is that old coach with its 
family memories to that column of cavalry now 
doubled up and riding four abreast, — horses bay, 
sorrel, white, black, and roan, guidons and colors 
waving, and each trooper armed with carbine, sabre 
and pistol ! The old carriage is not going to church 
or to a wedding this morning. 

The division following Custer's is Merritt's, 
Wesley Merritt's, one of the most popular men at 
West Point in my day. He has smiling blue eyes 
and has led this division in many a charge. More- 
over he is naturally modest, can write inspiring 
English, and is an addition always to the good com- 
pany he loves. I think that Sheridan relies on him 
more than on any one of his division commanders, 
and to-morrow he will be one of three selected by 
Grant to receive the surrender of Lee's army. 

That brigade just passing is the famous Michigan 
brigade; you notice that every one has a flaming 
scarlet necktie like Custer's; they were his first 



THE SUNSET OP THE CONFEDERACY 181 

command, and they love him. I wish that I could 
dwell on some of their exploits with him at their 
head. You do not know how the sight of those 
cavalrymen brings back to me that night after the 
two awful days in the Wilderness, when, with Warren 
in advance, I rode by them to Todd's Tavern, where 
they had fought so bravely for the Brock Road, 
without which Grant's move to Spottsylvania would 
have been seriously baffled. 

And here come Merritt's second brigade under 
Charley Fitzhugh. Wave your laurel, for he is 
another of my fellow cadets. He has brown eyes, 
and in that robust figure is a warm and gallant heart. 

And now passes the Reserve Brigade. At its head 
is the Second Massachusetts under Colonel Forbes, 
who bears a name which the Blue Hills of Milton 
cherish with pride. Its young colonel, Lowell, was 
killed last autumn in the valley, and his sword 
brought much added lustre to a family already dis- 
tinguished. 

The troopers and those grim old sergeants with 
grizzled moustaches and imperials, who sit their 
horses so firmly, belong to the First, Fifth, and Sixth 
Regulars; and, companion, my heart swells at the 
sight of them again, for I, too, was a Regular. 

And here comes Crook's division. I have already 
told you what kind of a looking man he is, and how 
he is beloved. I wish I could point out all whom 
I know and who have rendered great services, but 



182 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

I am afraid of being tedious. That regiment just 
passing, its guidons flirting so cheerily, is the First 
Maine. At its head is Colonel Cilley, and when all 
is still to-night, he with his regiment will be standing 
guard across the Lynchburg Pike, just this side of 
the little graveyard at Appomattox, and within 
hearing of the enemy's bivouac down in the old, 
weary-looking hamlet. 

And here comes Sheridan, — Sheridan ! he to 
whom the country to-morrow, and as long as it 
lives, will owe more than to any one in the Army of 
the Potomac for its final victory over what is called 
the Great Rebellion, inasmuch as, had it not been for 
his inflaming activity, the pursuit would not have 
been so rigorous, and Lee, instead of being where he 
is to-day, at the very verge of complete overthrow, 
would be, I fear, well on his way to the Roanoke. 

Sheridan is mounted on Rienzi. Look at man and 
horse, for they are both of the same spirit and temper. 
It was Rienzi who with flaming nostrils carried 
Sheridan to the field of Cedar Creek, *' twenty 
miles away; " and on the field of Five Forks, 
the battle which broke Lee's line and let disaster 
in. Before the final charge there, the horse became 
as impatient as his rider, kicking, plunging, tossing 
his head, pulling at the bit, while foam flecked his 
black breast. Sheridan gave him his head, when he 
saw that Ayres, at the point of the bayonet, was going 
to carry the day ; off sprang Rienzi and with a leap 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 183 

bounded over the enemy's works and landed Sheri- 
dan among the mob of prisoners and fighting troops. 
In the oncoming infantry that will soon appear you 
will see Ayres and that very division; and I have no 
doubt that you will look on them with admiration 
when I tell you of their exploits, for I have been with 
them and seen them under fire. 

Well, Rienzi, to-morrow you will bear your dis- 
tinguished rider to the McLean house, and there 
you will see General Lee coming up on Traveller, 
a horse with a better temper than yours, and soon 
thereafter Grant will ride up on high-bred Cincin- 
nati, and you three horses will go down to history 
together; and Grant to the day of his death will 
say that your rider, little Phil Sheridan, was the 
one great corps commander of the war. 

As you see, Sheridan is cased in the uniform of his 
grade; he has on a double-breasted frock-coat, the 
brass buttons in groups of three; his trousers are 
outside of his boots and strapped down; and, 
slightly tipping on his big round head, is a low- 
crowned, soft felt hat, concealing his close-cropped 
black hair. He is the very embodiment of vital 
energy, and in addition to his natural force and 
courage he is supported by an extraordinary, clear 
and quick comprehension of the phases of battle. 
Were you to get close to him, you would not fail 
to note his set jaw, his rather high, solid cheek- 
bones, quick blazing eyes, and all the impulsive 



184 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

characteristics of his determined nature mingling 
in his weather-bronzed face; and perchance it 
would make you think of a living anvil. His voice 
is naturally low, and on one occasion, amid all the 
tension and din of battle, an aide came galloping 
up and began to scream out some bad news, where- 
upon Sheridan, with set teeth and low measured 
tones, said, "Damn you, sir, don't yell at me!" 
Great as will his honors be, he never will have any 
affectations, but will ring true to the end. 

Those threescore or more unfurled Confederate 
colors carried behind him and his brilliant staff, 
"Tony" and "Sandy" Forsythe, Newhall, and 
Gillespie, were captured at Sailor's Creek; and 
could anything equal the sight of those flags in 
stirring the hearts of his men to renewed daring? 

And now the rear of the cavalry is passing, the 
head of the column has long since disappeared over 
the open crest. Sheridan is near the top of the hill 
and I can still make out his blue headquarters flag. 

In the momentary pause between cavalry and 
infantry, goes by a little squad with bandaged heads 
and limbs, hurrying along, some on mules and some 
on horses. They are wounded cavalrymen who have 
slipped away from the field hospitals of Sailor's 
Creek and Farmville, and are bound to be with their 
regiments. 

" What has that hatless man with the bandage 
across his brow dismounted for? Where? There at 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 185 

the run." Watch him and you will see. He is filling 
the canteens of his comrades. And how eagerly 
the feverish fellows drink! He has had to fill one 
canteen a second time; the contents of the first 
has been poured over a bandaged arm. Oh, fine 
is the spirit in the Army of the Potomac to-day ! 

" But why are you smiling .f' " Oh, because I 
know those fellows well, and except that obviously 
broken down, abandoned old mule, and that woe- 
begone, bald-faced chestnut horse which they have 
picked up, the chances are ten to one that those 
young rascals have stolen every mount they have. 

Now they are off, and the infantry is just issuing 
from the woods, and Turner's division of Ord's 
command is in the lead. Those troops, some from 
Illinois, some from Ohio, West Virginia, and far- 
away Massachusetts, were in the lines north of the 
James when the campaign began, and have covered 
more miles than any other in the army. Note the 
swing of Harris's brigade as they pass by, for they 
mean to keep up with the cavalry. 

They are all from West Virginia, the 10th, 11th 
and 15th Regiments, and have marched in and out, 
over and around their wood-clad native mountains, 
until they are all pedestrian athletes. " Down on the 
James," says my friend General Woodhull, " I have 
seen them after a fair march throw off their coats and 
organize running and jumping matches for sheer 
amusement when other troops were lying at rest." 



186 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Woodward's, the third brigade of what was Birney's 
division of colored troops, is with Turner also. 

Behind them is Foster's division, and with it is 
Doubleday's brigade of colored troops. Do you 
know, my friend, that these earnest black men re- 
call some vivid memories .^^ For I sat on the parapet 
of one of our batteries and saw Ferrero's division — 
they were all negroes officered by white men — 
move to the attack, when the mine was exploded at 
Petersburg. Up to that day thousands of us doubted 
the colored man's courage, and for fear these negroes 
would falter, a division of white troops was assigned 
to lead the assault. But such heroism as they dis- 
played I never saw surpassed on any field. Their 
advance up the incline was in full view, and you 
should have seen their steadiness in the face of a 
most deadly front-and-flank fire. Their flags began 
to fall as soon as they cleared our works, but up they 
would come boldly and on they would go. I can- 
not tell you how my breath shortened as the ground 
was strewn with their dead and wounded. Let us 
uncover; they have shown that they can be loyal 
and true to their masters, and they have shown that 
they can stand undaunted the final test of battle. 
Full of pathos are their songs and their fate for me, 
and I sometimes wonder if marble and bronze are 
not waiting for the hand of genius to express nature's 
deep feeling in their behalf. 

That spare man with iron gray hair and moustache 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 187 

is Ord, the senior officer of all this column of cavalry 
and infantry hastening on to head off Lee. He grad- 
uated at West Point the year Grant entered, and 
his eyes are bluish-gray and kindly. In company he 
is an easy but not a loquacious talker, and never is 
known to be angry or excited; in other words, reader, 
he is a man of good breeding. His voice, which is 
naturally clear, has a tinge of persuasiveness or 
solicitation in its tones. It was he who tried to bring 
about an interview between Grant and Lee before 
this final campaign began, for he felt sure that if 
they could meet they would bring the war to an end. 
Longstreet joined with him in this merciful and patri- 
otic design, but as soon as it was heard of in Washing- 
ton, Grant got peremptory orders to have no com- 
munication with Lee on questions of a political 
nature. 

All in all, I am glad that Ord's scheme failed, but, 
nevertheless, it tells what kind of man he is, and 
Peace at the last great day will beckon to him, you 
may rest assured, to come and sit down by her side. 

That young man, in fact almost a boy, among his 
staff, is Alfred A. Woodhull, an assistant surgeon 
in the army; and when Ord went to see Longstreet 
on his peace mission, he took Woodhull with him. 

And now there is another pause, for some of Ord's 
wagons are stalled at the run and block the way, but 
the officers and drivers are using the vigorous terms 
which the mule understands, and soon the road will 



188 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

be cleared. Yes, even now, for look, look! there comes 
the old Fifth corps. See how the sun glints on the 
leaning gun-barrels ! Griffin is at its head, and behind 
him floats the Maltese cross. What fields the sight 
of that flag evokes! Gaines's Mill, Glendale, Mal- 
vern Hill, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, 
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Five 
Forks! Blood of the Fifth corps reddened, and in 
some cases almost deluged, every one of them. And, 
upon my soul, I hear the volleys again, and once more 
I see their colors crossing the old Sanders field in 
the Wilderness and wavering up toward the orchard 
on the Spindle farm at Spottsylvania! Come on, 
you that are left! Come on! I was young once, too, 
and shared those bitter days with you. God bless 
you, come on with those tattered banners! Griffin 
is on his little chestnut mare, Sally, and day after 
to-morrow he will sell her to Captain Fowler of his 
staff for $350. — And there among his staff is my 
friend Winne. 

Leading the first brigade is Chamberlain of 
Maine, and for the sake of Round Top, the key of 
Gettysburg, which at the sword's tip he helped to 
save, and for the sake of his gentleness and knightli- 
ness, for he will bring that division to a salute when 
the Army of Northern Virginia marches by to lay 
down their arms, wave your laurel for Chamberlain. 

There go Coulter, Bartlett, and Baxter; they do 
not know me, but I know them; and when I saw 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 189 

Bartlett last in the Wilderness, blood was streaming 
down his face. And here comes Crawford, neat and 
trim as usual; and behind him is Kellogg leading all 
that is left of the Iron Brigade of the West, the Sixth 
and Seventh Wisconsin; for the sake of that first 
day at Gettysburg, let us rise and uncover. 

And here comes the sturdy old Regular, Ayres, 
with his division fresh from Five Forks. Look at 
those shredded and bullet-riddled colors! In their 
lacerated bands of red and white, and in those ripped, 
star-decked fields of blue, is written the visible his- 
tory of the Army of the Potomac. Oh, let us be 
grateful for that breeze which has set them a-rippling. 
They seem to be rejoicing. And who has told the 
west wind that peace is coming .^^ 

There go the One Hundred and Fortieth, One 
Hundred and Forty-sixth New York, the One Hun- 
dred and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania, and the Maryland 
Brigade. All hail! but oh, brave fellows, are you all 
that are leit? Reader, if you should ever visit the 
field of Spottsylvania, I wish you would go to where 
a stone bears this legend : — 

FARTHEST ADVANCE ON THIS FRONT 

THE MAEYLAND BRIGADE 

" Never mind bullets, never mind cannon, hut press on 
and clear the road " 



190 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

That was the order they got from Warren that Sun- 
day morning, and I saw them try to obey it. " Can 
I easily jBnd it? " Yes; and it will be glad to see you, 
and as you stand beside it in its loneliness and recall 
what it commemorates, you will feel how gently 
persuasive is the peace of the arching sky. 

And now that they have all gone by and are mount- 
ing the hill, I feel sorry that I directed your eye to a 
few only of those brave officers and men. But per- 
haps I have delayed the narrative already too long. 
Would that I could keep right on with the story, 
and that I did not so often forget that the majority 
of my fellow men have no particular interest in the 
mysteriously suffusing lights which haunt the back- 
ground of heroic deeds, but are concerned rather in 
the deeds themselves. 



XI 



Sheridan, starting from Prospect Station with 
Custer's and Merritt's divisions, took the road 
nearest the river, the one that leads by way of 
Walker's Church, leaving orders for Crook to keep 
on that which runs along the railroad, notifying him 
that he, Crook, would be followed by the infantry. 

Newhall says that Sheridan only halted once for 
rest and water, and, while waiting, sent a regiment 
to Cutbank Ford on the Appomattox to see if any of 
the enemy were heading for the south side of the 
river. The regiment he dispatched was the Second 
New York, under the command of Colonel A. M. 
Randol. It was against this reconnoitering party 
that Lee's inspector-general, Peyton, was posting 
the last of the First Virginia when Colonel Clai- 
borne asked him the question, " Does General Lee 
know how few of his soldiers are left, or to what 
extremities they are reduced? " 

Sheridan tells us that on the previous evening his 
scouts reported to him the presence of four railroad 
trains with supplies for Lee's army at Appomattox 
Station, and I have no doubt they did; but scouts 
were, as a rule, such infernal liars, that I doubt very 

191 



192 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

much if he felt absolutely sure of the truth of their 
story. At any rate, the other afternoon, as we looked 
off on the sea at Gloucester, Massachusetts, General 
Pennington told me that, after Randol had returned 
from his scout, he and Custer and Randol were 
dismounted and lay resting under the shade of some 
trees by the roadside a mile or more from Appomattox 
Station, when the whistle of a locomotive was borne 
to them. The sun was about an hour high. Custer 
jumped to his feet, exclaiming, " By George ! there's 
a train; let's go for it! " and sprang into his saddle. 
Randol says his regiment set off at a trot, and that 
Custer rode up and, laying his hand on his shoulder, 
said, " Go in, old fellow, don't let anything stop you: 
now is the chance for your stars; whoop 'em up and 
I'll be after you." 

Randol, followed by Pennington, at once struck 
into a gallop. The leading troopers, catching sight 
of the trains at the station just getting under way, 
for they had taken alarm, circled ahead of them, and, 
spurring up alongside the engines, covered the en- 
gineers with their revolvers and told them to throw 
the levers and stop; which orders they wisely obeyed. 
Randol then called for men to man the trains, when 
old firemen and engineers gladly threw themselves 
off their horses and, mounting the cabs, started the 
trains toward Farmville, with bells ringing and 
whistles blowing. 

Randol then pushed out from the station over the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 193 

several roads which radiated from it through the 
thick growths of jack-oak and scrub-pine to the 
Lynchburg Pike, a mile or more away. By this 
time twilight was about to give way to iiight. 

It will be recalled that Walker's column of sixty- 
odd pieces of reserve artillery had bivouacked in 
supposed security in the open fields along the pike; 
but to their amazement they heard Randol's men 
engaging some of their stray flankers, and at once 
rushed to their guns. But the horses were barely 
hitched when the cavalry were on them. The cannon- 
eers, however, had had time to load their pieces with 
canister, and companies of artillery whose guns had 
been abandoned and who had equipped themselves 
as infantry were able also to get into line, and to- 
gether they met our men with a destructive fire 
which swept them back into the woods. 

Pennington came on at a gallop with the rest of 
the brigade, but so dense were the scrub-pines and 
oaks, and so stubbornly did the enemy hold their 
ground, that he could not budge them. Custer 
hurried to the field with the other brigade and sent 
them in with his usual vehemence, but owing to the 
darkness and his ignorance of the lay of the land, he 
made no headway. But the fighting kept on. 

In the midst of the din Randol ran across Custer, 
who, now wild with desperation, was dashing here 
and there, his bugle sounding the charge, trying to 
push his men up against the enemy's line, although 



194 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

he was guided alone by the flash of their guns. 
Randol screamed to him that if he would let him get 
his regiment together he believed he could break 
through; but Custer exclaimed, " Never mind your 
regiment, take anything and everything you can find : 
we must get hold of that road to-night; " and then 
roared out to his adjutant-general, " Go tell the men 
that those guns must be taken in five minutes." Off 
went the adjutant-general, and the woods rang 
with the cheers of the cavalrymen as they heard 
him shouting Custer's words through the black 
night. Almost simultaneously his trooper charged in 
among the batteries, and the day and the road were 
theirs. 

Meanwhile Sheridan had come up and sent 
Devin of Merritt's division to Custer's right; but 
before they could get ready to attack, the victory 
had been won and the uncaptured guns and wagons 
were fleeing, — a few westward and out of danger 
toward Lynchburg (Blount's battery escaped), but 
the bulk backward and downward toward the Court- 
House, pursued by the Fifteenth New York Cav- 
alry. At the head of this regiment was Colonel 
Root on a white horse, whose wild speed soon carried 
him to the edge of the village. There he met a 
volley from Wallace's brigade, which, as soon as 
the retreating mob of men, batteries, and wagons 
would allow, had formed across the road. Root 
fell dead in the street, and his horse wheeled madly 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 195 

and dashed out of the withering fire which our men 
were glad to run from. 

It was now nine o'clock and after, and that was 
the end of the day's operations on Lynchburg 
Pike; Custer captured twenty-five pieces of ar- 
tillery, over two hundred wagons, and many prison- 
ers, and Lee's last chance was gone. By their tri- 
umph, every one will agree, Sheridan's cavalry 
had earned the country's gratitude. 

It may be interesting to repeat in substance what 
Doctor Claiborne and General Pendleton, already 
quoted, have to say of their experiences in this spirited 
combat. Both happened to be with Walker when 
Randol's bugles sounding a charge were heard, and, 
says Pendleton in his report, " to avert immediate 
disaster, demanded the exercise of all our abilities." 
The infantry and artillery were prompt and reso- 
lute, as we know, in repulsing Randol at first; and 
Pendleton, concluding the affair was over and receiv- 
ing a message that he was wanted at Lee's head- 
quarters, left Walker and had got within a short 
distance of the Court-House when — this is his 
language — " the enemy's cavalry came rushing 
along, firing upon all in the road, and I only es- 
caped being shot or captured by leaping my horse 
over the fence and skirting for some distance along 
the left of the road toward our column, then ad- 
vancing, until I reached a point where the enemy's 
charge was checked." 



196 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

He must have skirted pretty widely, for he did not 
get to Lee's headquarters till one a. m., and from 
where he leaped the fence it could not have been 
more than two miles. But the country was very 
rough and new to him; besides, he had to find some 
place to cross the river. The old general, what 
with having to carry the unpleasant resolve of the 
council to Lee, and then being hustled so suddenly, 
unexpectedly, and disagreeably, by Sheridan's cav- 
alry, had certainly had a bad day. 

Doctor Claiborne and his two companions, Doctors 
Field and Smith, had unsaddled their horses near 
Walker's command, and with the saddles for their 
pillows were enjoying some sleep, when Claiborne's 
attendant, Burkhardt, a soldier Quaker, leaning 
over, shook the doctor rudely by the shoulder and 
cried, " Doctor! The Yankees be upon thee! " 
It is not necessary to say that there was no delay 
in waking up or disappearing in the black jack-oaks. 
The Yankee cavalry charging with yells and clank- 
ing sabres in every direction, the doctors made good 
time, as doctors should when suddenly called 
upon in any emergency. They rambled round till 
the fight was over, and then raked some leaves 
together and bivouacked in the corner of a fence. 
I do not know what there is about doctors, unless 
it is their cheerful way of assuring us that we will soon 
recover after taking their vile tasting nostrums, 
accompanied by an air of native fastidiousness on 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 197 

their part, that always impresses me as humorous; 
and now as in my mind's eye I see three of them in 
that fence corner, waking and eyeing each other 
after that night's experiences, I cannot resist a 
smile. Well, they had barely left their bed of 
leaves when in the mist loomed one of our cavalry 
videttes, who pulled a heavy revolver, and they 
were soon taken to the rear as prisoners. 

That night Sheridan made his headquarters in a 
little frame house not far from Appomattox Station, 
and, stretched out on a bench in the cheerful parlor 
lighted by a bright wood fire, dictated a dispatch 
to Grant. It was dated 9:20 p. m., and after telling 
Grant what had been accomplished, it ended, " If 
General Gibbon and the Fifth corps can get up to- 
night we will perhaps finish the job in the morning. 
I do not think Lee means to surrender until com- 
pelled to do so." At an earlier hour Sheridan had 
sent back word to Ord that he was across Lee's 
front, and urged him to bring up the infantry with 
all speed, for he felt sure that Lee would try to 
break through. Ord communicated the news to 
Gibbon and Griffin, and they continued the march 
till well on toward midnight; and on halting, the 
men were so tired by their march of nearly thirty 
miles, that they did not stop to make coffee, but 
sank down beside their gun-racks and fell asleep. 

As soon as Crook came up, Sheridan had him join 
his right to Devin's left and establish a line squarely 



198 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

across the road; Custer's men being occupied 
meanwhile in clearing the field of their captures, 
regaining their organizations, finding and caring 
for their stricken comrades. Custer, before going 
into bivouac, rode to the hospital and visited his 
wounded. " Had it been daylight," says Tremain, 
" he would have seen green saplings, about which 
his men so valiantly and successfully fought, bent 
and split by canister from the artillery. The trees 
and artillery carriages in the park were perforated 
with bullet-holes; horses wallowed in the bloody 
mud, and the first dawn of the day upon the spot 
would tell any observer of the deadly character 
of that evening's contest. Surgeons of wide ex- 
perience in the cavalry remarked that they never 
treated so many extreme cases in so short a fight." 
It was toward one o'clock when the videttes of 
the First Maine Cavalry, under Colonel Cilley, 
Crook's division, took their position across the road 
at a point within three quarters of a mile of the 
Court-House. The colonel, after posting them, 
attracted by the noises which came through the 
darkness from the Confederate artillery camping 
in the valley below him, dismounted and passed 
through his line. He approached near enough to 
hear distinctly the angry exclamations of the drivers 
and teamsters at their poor, famished horses, and 
then, returning, sat at the foot of a chestnut tree 
where he had planted the standard of his regiment. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 199 

Up to him, as he sat there drowsing, were borne the 
confused sounds of the enemy's camp, and over him, 
and over friend and foe, bivouacking or moving, 
fleets of clouds were drifting mid pools of starry 
light. And now, while the hours draw on, let us 
turn and see what was transpiring, first at Grant's 
and then at Lee's headquarters, that Saturday night. 

Grant's, as well as Meade's, were at J. I. Crute's, 
a large white house on the stage road about two and 
a half miles south of Curdsville. The plantation 
was called Clifton. Grant had accompanied Meade, 
so that he would be in quick reach of Lee's reply 
to his second letter, which he had good reason to be- 
lieve would be answered promptly; but the after- 
noon and half the night passed before the expected 
response came to hand. 

In the afternoon Grant was taken with one of his 
severe headaches, and at night threw himself on a 
sofa in the room to the left of the hall. Unfortu- 
nately for his comfort, there was a piano in the 
opposite room, about which after supper the young 
officers of the respective staffs gathered, caroling 
and bellowing out choruses. Grant with his usual 
forbearance bore the racket for quite a while, 
hoping the youngsters would soon tire out; at 
last, satisfied that they had no intention of ending 
the nuisance, he sent word asking them to stop ; and 
I think I can see them tiptoeing away from the 
dumfounded old piano that had never been called 



200 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

on for anything but hymns, "Nearer my God to 
Thee," " The Bonnie Blue Flag," and " Dixie." 

For some reason or other, it seems that Lee did 
not receive Grant's letter till a late hour, and I am 
perfectly free to confess that there is something 
unaccountable in the delay, for it entered Lee's 
lines before eleven o'clock a. m,, and an aide ought 
to have overtaken him in two and a half hours at 
most. Fitz Lee, on whose lines Williams delivered 
the letter, shortly after its receipt sent a flag back 
asking Humphreys if the contents of the dispatch 
to General Lee was intended to interrupt the oper- 
ations of the day. Humphreys replied that the 
letter was sealed and its contents unknown, but 
he did know that the operations of the day were 
not to be interrupted. 

I suspect Fitz Lee's curiosity grew out of his 
already premeditated and probably declared inten- 
tion to strike off with the cavalry in case surrender 
was imminent, a resolution he tried to carry out the 
next day. But on the receipt of Humphreys's re- 
ply he was as much in the dark as ever, and I sus- 
pect that the foxy Fitz intimated to the aide en- 
trusted with Grant's dispatch not to be in too big 
a hurry to find the general. Let the explanation 
be what it may, Alexander says it was answered by 
the roadside, late in the afternoon, and that Lee's 
reply was delivered to Humphreys after sundown. 
But it must have been considerably after sundown. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 201 

for Major Mason of Fitz Lee's stajff brought it to 
Colonel Egbert's line of skirmishers, One Hundred 
and Eighty-third Pennsylvania, who were not put 
in the advance till after eight o'clock — and when- 
ever it reached Humphreys after that hour, it 
did not reach Grant till about twelve o'clock. Up 
to that time, on account of his headache, he had 
not been able to get much sleep. Rawlins took the 
dispatch to him; after making a few comments, — 
probably to the effect that Sheridan was right, 
that Lee did not mean to surrender till he was forced 
to do so, — he lay down on the sofa again. Here 
is the letter. 

" April 8, 1865. 
" General, — I received at a late hour your note 
of to-day. In mine of yesterday I did not intend 
to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. 
To be frank, I do not think the emergency has 
arisen to call for the surrender of this army, but, 
as the restoration of peace should be the object 
of all, I desire to know whether your proposals 
would lead to that end. I cannot therefore meet 
you with a view to surrender the Army of Northern 
Virginia, but as far as your proposal may affect 
the Confederate States' forces under my command, 
and tend to the restoration of peace, I should be 
pleased to meet you at ten a. m. to-morrow on the 



202 THE SUNSET OP THE CONFEDERACY 

old stage road to Richmond, between the picket- 
lines of the two armies. 

"R. E. Lee, Gen." 

Just where Lee was when he wrote this letter I 
do not know, but he soon bivouacked, and his camp- 
fire was started, the last that should blaze ere the 
flames of his hope were quenched; for before the 
next was kindled he had drunk the bitter cup of 
defeat and the end had come. 

It was on a golden October afternoon that, in 
my ramblings over the field of Appomattox, I came 
to Lee's last camp, and gentle, gentle was the hour 
I sat there on a long since fallen tree around whose 
shrivelling trunk nature was lovingly weaving a 
mossy green shroud. Rooted in the camp-fire's 
ashes a simple white-fringed daisy on a crooked 
leaning stalk was blooming; over them and amid the 
tawny rug of leaves that covered them, lay here and 
there a black gum's waxy, scarlet leaf blazing like 
a living coal of that last old camp-fire itself. From 
the intermingling limbs above me, russet oak and 
yellowing chestnut leaves from time to time came 
silently twirling down, and off in the still surround- 
ing woods, a bird fluted a soft pensive farewell note. 

Yes, gentle was the afternoon I sat on that fallen 
tree, and I sometimes wonder if hours and scenes 
like that are not the emblem of the soul's peace at 
last; for surely, the consciousness of sin, the modern 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 203 

accumulating blight of natural joy in this sweet, 
brook-singing world, had no dominion there. 

Well, early in the evening, and doubtless on 
account of hearing Walker's guns pouring their 
rapid fire into Custer, Lee, from that camp-fire, 
sent orders for the cavalry to be moved to the front, 
and its commander, Fitz Lee, to report to him in 
person, inasmuch as he had decided to hold a council 
of war with his three corps commanders. For the 
boom of that artillery was ominous, and, figuratively, 
he was like the captain of a ship on a tempestuous 
night, who is feeling his way to a harbor and sud- 
denly hears the breakers thundering on the bar. 

When Fitz Lee arrived at headquarters, which 
had neither chairs, tents, nor camp-stools about it, 
he found Longstreet there sitting on a log, his arm in 
a sling, and smoking a pipe; and soon after Gordon 
appeared. And then, before the low-burning camp- 
fire darkly over-arched by leafy trees, — there was 
no moon, and the sky was heavily patched with 
high fast-drifting surly clouds, — they sat down on 
blankets and saddles and listened to Lee. 

Longstreet says that the great Confederate, with 
clouded face but in complete command of himself, 
opened the conference. It is not probable that he 
dwelt with particularity on what had happened since 
they left Petersburg: that the Capitol had fallen, 
that the chance to consult Mr. Davis and his 
Cabinet were gone, that the supplies were gone. 



204 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

that thousands and thousands of weak and dis- 
heartened soldiers were gone, and that their enemy's 
cavahy was ahead of them on the Lynchburg road, 
for all those facts were common knowledge. But 
the correspondence he had had with Grant in 
reference to the surrender of the army, that they 
did not know definitely, and he proceeded to read 
it to them. And the question then was, what next.^* 

And now, reader, before the momentous question 
is discussed in all of its phases by the council and 
then answered, I beg for a pause. For we have 
reached one of those solemn hours when the hand 
of the Inevitable is on the wheel of Fortune, one 
of those hours, indeed, so fatal to institutions that 
are sham, inhumane, corrupt, and sordid in this 
world, as well as to states and conditions which have 
had their day of shutting out ideals with the smoke 
of sacrifices on the altars of Mammon, involving the 
just and the unjust: an hour when nations, with all 
their ties, aspiration, and glory, begin to pass away 
like a mist of the morning and are gone. 

And now that same mighty, fatal wheel is about 
to turn again and crush a cause which God has 
been implored to bless, and for which many a life 
has been laid down. Let us not say who is right 
or who is wrong, for this is not the time to stir the 
ashes of dead fires, but put yourself in the place of 
that group and forget not the dooming hour, or fail 
to credit each one with a sense of self-respect and a 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 205 

conscience like our own. Think of the sacrifices 
that they had made beyond measure in a cause which 
they beKeved to be just, and remember that now at 
last, notwithstanding all, they were face to face 
with defeat, which meant that social, domestic, and 
economic conditions were bound to be disrupted 
into utmost chaos. Think it all over, broad-minded 
reader, as you evoke the scene. 

And so, then, nephew Fitzhugh, and you, Gor- 
don, and Longstreet, hero old and tried, what next? 
Shall the Army of Northern Virginia, after all its 
confident assertion and reassertion of ultimate vic- 
tory, lay down its arms, and the South acknowledge 
that it has been utterly defeated. f' For with this 
army's surrender the Confederacy plunges into an 
abyss beyond reach of recovery. 

And with that dire result a fact, what political 
steps will necessarily follow .^^ Are we and the lead- 
ers civil to be disfranchised till death overtakes us.?* 
And are the sins of the fathers to be visited upon their 
children? 

And how about the states? Are they to be held 
as conquered provinces and never allowed to take 
their places again, clothed in their native sover- 
eignty, in a Union which they had helped to form? 
And how about the future of the slaves themselves? 
What is to be their status? Are they to be granted 
and we denied the right of suffrage? 

Again, whatsoever the terms which Grant may 



206 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

make, how far will they bind his government? 
Has it not notified him peremptorily, " You are 
not to decide, discuss, or confer upon, any political 
question " ? Our arms laid down, let the implacable 
radicals cry for vengeance: what will the govern- 
ment do then? Will it yield to them and invoke 
the penalties of treason? — Treason! You are a 
dread old word, whether heard under the oaks of 
England or under the oaks of Virginia; and when 
has there ever been a rebellion in England that the 
land did not groan under the shadow of gibbets? 
Had not these men, brought up on the Spectator 
and lovers of Shakespeare, more than once read 
Prince John of Lancaster's cruel speech to the 
rebellious Scroop, Archbishop of York? — 

Moreover, what is to be the character of the 
ceremony of surrender? — Is it unfair to assume 
that Longstreet and Gordon had read Livy? Fitz 
Lee at least had had to study Blair's Rhetoric in 
his course at West Point, while his uncle Robert 
E. was superintendent, and surely was familiar 
with the story of the legions' anguish at the pros- 
pect of having to pass under the yoke after the 
Caudine Forks. — And was their beloved commander 
Robert E. Lee on Traveller to head the Army of 
Northern Virginia in a like march of humiliation 
before the Army of the Potomac? These were 
questions stalking round that fire like grim spec- 
tres, and calling on the members of that last 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 207 

council for an answer. Do not be deceived. This 
is not fancy; they were there in sternly eager 
reality. Gordon himself says that " if all that 
was said and felt at that meeting could be given, it 
would make a volume of measureless pathos." 

But let us come to the main issue. There was one 
chance left. It was possible, if cavalry alone dis- 
puted the way, for them to break through and con- 
tinue their onward march either to the Roanoke 
or to the works and supplies at Lynchburg, And, 
if that were impossible, then, with the fragments 
which might elude capture, keep up a desultory 
guerrilla warfare till the government should grow 
weary and grant a peace of considerate terms. 
It is needless to speak of how Longstreet's, Gor- 
don's and Fitz Lee's pride, and self-respect, and 
the wounds they bore, — for each of them had been 
carried bleeding from the field, — clamored in 
favor of this course, or that the council decided that 
the attempt of clearing the road should be tried, and if 
it failed, then Lee was to see Grant and accept terms. 

Fitz Lee claimed, in justification of withdrawing 
his cavalry after the flag of truce was raised, that 
it was fully understood at the council that he 
should do so in case of their failure to break through 
Sheridan. But let this be as it may, his men scat- 
tered to their homes and he in a few days came in 
and gave himself up, convinced that, with his chief 
gone, all was over. 



208 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

There is every reason to believe that Lee was glad 
when Longstreet, Gordon and his nephew Fitz de- 
cided as they did; and I am glad, too: for the sake 
of enduring peace, I am glad that the Army of 
Northern Virginia took war's last hazard, notwith- 
standing that scores of noble-spirited youths on 
both sides lost their lives. For when Victory 
finally illumined the torn banners of the Union, 
nowhere within the range of endeavor's vision was 
there a single lost opportunity to save the Con- 
federacy; all had been done by the Army of North- 
ern Virginia that fortitude and courage could call 
upon it to do. 

To carry out the decision they had reached, 
Gordon and Fitz Lee, accompanied by four or five 
batteries, were to move at one o'clock, get into 
position by daylight, and then attack Sheridan. 
Longstreet was to follow after them with his heroic 
corps, and in case they were successful, take a stand 
at the Court-House, and hold Humphreys back till 
the trains were out of the way, Mahone meanwhile 
guarding their left. 

Then the three corps commanders left to rejoin 
their shattered, sleeping forces. Gordon, while 
thinking intently and rapidly over the coming 
enterprise as he rode away, suddenly bethought him, 
" Where, after throwing off Sheridan, shall I halt 
and camp for the night? " 

It was an important question, and he sent one 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 209 

of his staff back to Lee to have him settle the 
matter. 

" Yes," said Lee, after hearing the serious aide, 
*' tell General Gordon that I should be glad for him 
to halt just beyond the Tennessee line," — which 
was only about two hundred miles off to the west, 
amid the Alleghany Mountains! 

Lee, as the world knows, was not inclined to be 
facetious, but this reply under all the circumstances 
bubbles with such spontaneous humor that I am 
sure that it will bring him closer to my readers. 

Thirty guns from Carter's, Poague's, Johnson's 
and Stark's battalions of artillery were ordered to 
support Gordon, and at a very early hour they, with 
the infantry and cavalry, took up the march. Fitz 
Lee's cavalry having bivouacked east of New Hope 
Church, had to pass through Longstreet's tired, 
sleeping veterans, whose waning camp-fires were 
faintly twinkling by the roadside, — for in those 
dark, still hours the fairy spinner. Mist, was weaving 
her veil deeply over the face of the fields and woods. 
Lee's staff, and a part of Gordon's and Longstreet's, 
lay down on the ground near the roadside, after the 
conference, with saddles for pillows, their horses 
picketed to the trees and gnawing every little while 
at the bark for want of better provender. 

Lee rose at three o'clock and rode forward through 
the rear of Fitz Lee's and Gordon's troops to a 
commanding point overlooking the misty valley 



210 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

below. There he reined up and waited, as they filed 
down the road past him; and the time must have 
seemed long till dawn. But at last it came, and 
with its approach, the pale fog, as if it had heard a 
mysterious signal, began to lift slowly, and the 
surrounding region became visible. 

Meanwhile Grimes of Gordon's corps, a square- 
faced, resolute man with eyes wide apart and pen- 
ciled brows, to whom Bushrod Johnson's divisions 
had been assigned, had crossed the river, and pass- 
ing through the village, had formed athwart the 
Lynchburg road. James A. Walker's division 
also of Gordon's corps, drew up in the fog-gray 
darkness on Grimes's left, and Evans, with his 
Georgia, Louisiana, and Virginia brigades, under 
whose command was all that survived of the old 
Stonewall brigade, on Walker's left. 

Grimes put Bushrod Johnson on his right. Cox's 
brigade of North Carolinians holding the extreme 
flank. The batteries assigned to accompany Gordon 
took their places; cannoneers mounted, ready to 
follow Grimes. The cavalry formed on the in- 
fantry's right, first W. H. F. Lee's division, then 
Rosser, and then the young, gallant Munford, all 
under the command of stocky, blue-eyed, full- 
rusty -bearded, jolly Fitz Lee, — but he was not in a 
joking mood that morning. A little before daylight 
Gordon accompanied by Fitz Lee, came to where 
Grimes stood, and began in his presence to talk 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 211 

about what should be done. Grimes says Gordon 
was of the opinion that the troops before them were 
cavalry, and that Fitz Lee should begin the attack; 
Fitz Lee thought they were infantry, and that 
Gordon should attack. They discussed the matter 
so long that Grimes got impatient and blurted out 
that it was somebody's business to attack at once, 
and that he was sure he could drive our forces 
from the Bent Creek road, which it had been 
decided the Confederate trains were to take. 

It may help to vivify the landscape if we stand 
where Gordon and Grimes stood and look at it 
through their eyes. They were within one hun- 
dred yards of the McLean house, on the edge of the 
village and facing south. Before them, spread out 
like a tilted fan, old fields, veiled with mist and 
creased with gentle folds, rose toward the south, 
crowned at last with dark circling woods. About 
midway of the incline, the Bent Creek road strikes 
off westward from the Lynchburg, but after a while 
rambles back into it again beyond Appomattox 
Station. It will be remembered that the First 
Maine's videttes, carbine in hand, were posted along 
it, and that their division. Crook's, was up in the 
woods a half mile or more to the rear, dismounted, 
their horses browsing, and some of the men behind 
a line of temporary defenses of rails, brush, and 
pieces of old logs, whose centre was on the Lynch- 
burg road; and that while Gordon and Grimes 



212 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

were having their interview, Mackenzie's small 
division was moving under orders from Sheridan 
to take position on Crook's left. 

" Well! " replied Gordon, to Grimes's soldierly, 
blunt remark, " drive them off ! " 

" I cannot do it with my division alone," ob- 
served Grimes. 

" You can take the other two divisions ! " re- 
sponded Gordon. 

Grimes then rode to Walker on his left and asked 
him to go with him while he pointed out Crook's 
position and explained his plan of attack. 

Meanwhile Gordon and Fitz Lee settled on the 
following plan: the cavalry should bear to its right, 
then circle to the left till it got well on Crook's left 
and rear, and as soon as they were ready, Grimes 
was to advance, and they together make an attack 
on Crook and clear the road. But the cavalry's 
movements were sluggish, and it was not till my 
classmate "'Jim " Lord, by order of Colonel Smith 
of the First Maine, let drive a few rounds from his 
battery, pushed well up on the encircling ridge, 
down in among the swarm of cavalry, infantry, and 
wagons dim in the enshrouding fog, that any advance 
was made. Thereupon Grimes started a light force 
up the pike and drove the videttes from the Bent 
Creek road back on the main line. 

The road clear, the right of Fitz Lee's command, 
Rosser and Munford, took it, moving briskly, and 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 213 

Grimes with lines extended waited for them to get 
to Crook's left. Meanwhile, the sun rose, as did the 
fog, and the dewy tree-tops on the timbered hills, 
which zigzag round the head of the Appomattox, 
began to loom free against the fresh sky of that 
Palm Sunday morning, a sky that soon, north and 
south, would hear the bells of many a steeple 
ringing. 



XII 

But before Fitz Lee strikes — it should not be for- 
gotten that at that very time Mackenzie was moving 
toward Crook's left — let us turn to Ord's troops, 
who had bivouacked at midnight within four or 
five miles of Appomattox Station. They were called 
from their slumbers at three a. m., and although 
weary and foot-sore, and without breakfasting, — 
" but a few had had anything to eat since noon of 
the previous day," say the War Records, — fell in 
without murmuring, and resumed the march. Fos- 
ter's division of Gibbon's corps was in the lead; 
behind him Turner's, of the same corps, the Twenty- 
fourth, and then Griffin, with the Fifth corps. 

About the time Gordon was replying to Grimes, 
Foster had reached the vicinity of Sheridan's head- 
quarters, the little frame house just south of the 
Station, and halted for breakfast. Their fires were 
barely started when Ord rode up, dismounted, and, 
after a short consultation with Sheridan, started 
Foster on at full speed and then rode back to hurry 
on the rest of the infantry, for word had just come 
in that the enemy were moving. 

Rienzi was stamping in front of the door; Sheri- 
214 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 215 

dan mounted him, and dashed for the front. Having 
gained a point where he could get a good view of 
Gordon's infantry, he halted. They were now ad- 
vancing firmly with colors, and there were so many 
standards crimsoning each body of troops, — to 
their glory the Confederate color-bearers stood by 
Lee to the last, — that they looked like marching 
gardens blooming with cockscomb, red roses, and 
poppies. One glance told Sheridan that Crook and 
Mackenzie could not possibly hold their ground, 
and he sent word to them to fall back slowly. He 
also sent orders to Custer and Devin, who, after 
their severe trials of the night before, had retired for 
a little rest near his headquarters, to come on the 
field at once. 

Meanwhile, the Confederate batteries which, 
under Alexander, had jarred earth and sky at Gettys- 
burg just before Pickett's charge, had opened and 
were thundering well. And as I loitered last Octo- 
ber on the spot where they stood that Sunday 
morning in 1865, the spirits of Confederate cannon- 
eers approached me, asking, " Can you tell us 
where we can find our old commanders, Pelham, 
Alexander, Dearing, ' Joe ' Blount, Brown, and 
Carter .f* " Yes, if you will follow a road upward, 
upward past moons and stars, the road that the 
sound of the church-bells took that Palm Sunday 
morning, it will lead you at last to where you will 
find them all, in the land o' the leal. 



216 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

The sound of the firing reached Ord's column, 
stepping briskly, and with cheers they broke into 
double-quick. Pennington of Custer's division, 
who had not found rest until after midnight, was 
fast asleep on a quilt of pine-needles in a grove trav- 
ersed by the sunken road on which the men were 
marching. Their eagle-like scream awakened him, 
and as far as he could see, the road was packed with 
men, their faces grimly ablaze, colors flying, and 
over them, like a wavering shield of steel, were their 
muskets at right-shoulder-shift, as they trotted 
forward to the sound of the now booming guns; 
for Gordon's and Fitz Lee's veterans were answering 
the last call of the Confederacy with their old-time 
spirit. 

Fitz Lee, having gained his position, assailed 
Mackenzie violently, and swept his small brigade 
out of the way before he could establish due con- 
nection with Crook — reader, for the sake of a 
boy's love for another, let me say that Ronald S. 
Mackenzie (we always called him Mack) graduated 
at the head of my class, and that a braver, less self- 
conscious or truer-hearted boy never lived, and that 
many and many a happy hour I passed with him and 
our fellow classmates as we sat and smoked and 
talked, — oh, so young and care-free! — before call 
to quarters at West Point. Poor Mack! His mind 
became clouded, but death released him at last, 
and I know he rests in peace, for Honor and Valor 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 217 

saw to it that his pillow was soft. I shall never for- 
get his riding up to Meade's headquarters in the 
Mine Run campaign, the red blood dripping from 
his horse's shoulder. The bullet that made the 
wound was fired at Mackenzie while making a 
reconnaissance of the enemy's line. 

Well, at about Mackenzie's critical moment, 
Grimes, supported by four or five batteries under 
Colonel Thomas H. Carter, struck Crook in front, 
and, although his dismounted men held on stub- 
bornly, they were forced to give way finally, and 
mighty fast, too, at that, for W. H. F. Lee was char- 
ging squarely against their left flank and rear. Back 
through old fields and heavy copses of young pine 
and shaggy jack-oaks, Crook and Mackenzie were 
driven, their led horses and batteries retreating in 
great confusion, leaving a gun, and perhaps two of 
them — for the number is in doubt — in the enemy's 
hands, captured by Beal's and Roberts's brigades 
of W. H. F. Lee's division. Meanwhile Devin, 
who was on the Le Grand road commanding Sheri- 
dan's first division, seeing the trouble Crook and 
Mackenzie were in and Gordon's infantry moving 
up t]ie Lynchburg road in two lines of battle, formed 
his men to attack Gordon's advancing left opening 
on it a rapid and effective fire with his artillery. 
Crook and Mackenzie out of their way. Grimes 
wheeled his first line of battle to the left and brushed 
Devin back to Plain Run and the Le Grand road. 



218 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

The Lynchburg road was clear, and the tattered 
forces that had cleared it burst into cheers. 

But their victorious shouts had hardly broken 
before on through the mob of Crook's fleeing cav- 
alry came Foster's division of Gibbon's corps, and, 
with the greatest promptness, and without regard to 
its own flanks, his leading brigade, Osborn's, — 
Thirty-ninth Illinois, Sixty-second and Sixty-ninth 
Ohio, — sought and rushed at the flanking cavalry. 
To Osborn's right and left the other brigades of 
Foster's division. Dandy's and Fairchild's as well 
as Turner's division, and the brigades of colored 
troops, hurried, and forthwith all fought their way 
to the open, where rested the right of the main body 
of the Confederate infantry. Several batteries 
now, at point-blank, fired shell and canister into 
Gibbon's men, and held them for a while, but were 
quickly driven from their position with the loss of 
several guns, captured by the Eighth Maine, Fair- 
child's brigade, and 199th Pennsylvania, of Osborn's 
brigade, Foster's division. 

Meanwhile, the Fifth corps. Chamberlain's brigade 
in front, on reaching the Station had been deflected 
to the right, and soon Pearson's brigade, second in 
line of the front division, was ordered to line up 
alongside of Ord's right. Obliquely to the north- 
west into double-quick they broke, and orders from 
General Joseph J. Bartlett came sharp and fast: 
*' One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania, for- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 219 

ward as skirmishers!" "On centre!" "Take 
intervals! " and away they go to the front, the cav- 
alry parting and falling back through them. When 
deployed, their right was near the Trent house. 
Chamberlain continued the march rapidly up the 
Le Grand road, heavy guns answering each other 
fiercely, their lordly roar mingling with the spiteful 
crack of carbines and muskets, which every little 
while were drowned in the crash of a volley. One 
of Sheridan's staff dashed at full speed up to the 
gallant Chamberlain, exclaiming, " General Sheri- 
dan wishes you to break off from the column and 
come to his support. The rebel infantry is pressing 
him hard. Our men are falling back; don't wait 
for orders through the regular channels, but act 
on this at once." 

At a run they followed the staff officer to where 
Sheridan sat on fiery Rienzi, partially enveloped in 
the smoke of the batteries, man and horse living 
embodiments of tumultuous energy. 

I do not know just where Sheridan stood that 
morning, but for a clearer understanding let us paint 
the view that was swept by his ardent dark eye. 

There is a little brook a couple of miles long, called 
Plain Run, which has its source in woods not far 
from Appomattox Station, and, after creeping out 
into the sunshine, flows northeastwardly in a shallow 
valley to the Appomattox. Along the western rim 
of the brook's cradle is the Lynchburg road. On 



220 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

the eastward rim, which is somewhat higher, is a 
country road that starts at the station, and after 
traversing three or four large plantations, the Inge, 
Sears's, and Le Grand's, enters the Walker's Church 
road within less than a mile of the Court-House; 
thence the two glide on together down to Plain Run, 
which at this point is only a few hundred yards 
from the faint-beating heart of the old hamlet. 
Thus the shallow valley is bounded by these roads. 
On its gently-sloping sides are fields that last Octo- 
ber were covered with dun broom-grass, some dotted 
with low, green-tufted pines, and some tented with 
rows of corn in the shock. By the Trent house and 
then the Sears, the run wanders at the foot of these 
fields, and a lowing cow on its banks in the still 
hours of the night can be heard from road to road. 
When I visited the field I went to the Sears house 
and from thence to the run itself, a few hundred yards 
away, for I wanted to see it at about the point where 
Chamberlain crossed it. I found it stealing through 
willows and alders, and under half -grown trees inter- 
laced with wild grape-vines. The water, like that 
of Shiloah, was flowing softly, softly, from one 
shadowed pool to another. A little alarmed bird 
was chirping nervously in the alders, a yellow but- 
terfly wavered by me to join a colony, sitting close 
together with upright, bladed wings, gilding a spot 
on a black, damp bar, — all of them resting as 
though in the dream of a distant summer day, — 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 221 

and from the direction of the Court-Hoiise came 
faintly the intermittent jangle of a cow-bell. 

I went back, up to the Le Grand road, and there 
lay the scene swept by Sheridan's blazing eye. And 
what did he see? His cavalry falling back down 
the sloping fields from the Lynchburg road, and 
on their crest Gordon's men cheering, shrouded in 
the smoke of battle, with scores and scores of crim- 
son banners flying. Oh, stormy sea of four long years ! 
Your last triumphant wave is breaking; but not, 
not forever, like a shadow, are you gone, for there 
is a beach in men's hearts which God in his wisdom 
hath made to respond to echoes of wars like this, 
and that creative, musical beach is emotion. 

War's tumult is loud, volleys are crashing, hills 
and woods are throwing back madly each sullen 
cannon's roar, men are falling mangled and bleed- 
ing; the ultimate crisis of the war is at hand. Ord's 
left is drawing near the Bent Creek road. Gibbon, 
Turner, Ay res and Bartlett are all surging through 
the timber toward the cheering Confederates. 

But hark! Abruptly that cheering stops; stops 
as abruptly as though a deadly pang had struck 
each breast, or a sheeted ghost had risen before them. 
Whence and from whom has come the pang or 
what has evoked the forbidding spectre to change 
the mood of those cheering veterans? Lo! a mighty 
host with colors, fields of stars and bands of white 
and crimson, is pouring from the green leafy depths 



222 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

of the woods, and in full view across the valley the 
old Fifth corps has risen up out of the earth, as it 
were, and in two lines of battle is swinging down 
past the Sears house with flags rippling gaily; flags 
that waved so opportunely on Round Top that 
second day at Gettysburg; and the cheering 
stops. 

Sheridan's bugles are calling triumphantly shrill; 
the scattered cavalry respond to their notes and 
gather in high spirits promptly to their standards; 
and Custer, at the head of the clanking column, 
gallops up the Le Grand road, drawing sabres for 
a charge toward the Court-House itself. Sheridan, as 
he leaves Chamberlain to join them, grits out, 
"Now smash 'em, I tell you; smash 'em!" and 
gives the bit to the champing, restless, head-tossing 
Rienzi. 

As Chamberlain crosses the little run, all the 
troops on his left press forward, and the whole Con- 
federate line, now full of despair and heartache, 
begins to fall back. But as they retire. Cox gives 
to his North Carolina brigade the command, " Right 
about face! " Behind them their young, stately 
commander stands, his body bearing the scars of 
eleven wounds. As one they whirl. Firmly rings 
his voice again: "Ready! Aim! Fire! " and from 
levelled guns pours the last volley that will be fired 
by the Army of Northern Virginia. Manly was he 
in the morning of life; manly is he in its evening; 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 223 

and his heart still youthful notwithstanding its 
weight of seventy-odd years. Here is my hand, 
gallant Cox, and may your last days be cloudless 
and sweet! 

And reader, while the smoke of his brigade is 
billowing up, let me tell you a monument marks the 
spot where that last volley was fired; and, if ever 
you visit the field, — and I hope it will be in October, 
— do go to that stone : the tall, slender, gray-bod- 
ied, twilight-holding young pines that have grown 
up thickly in front of it, and the purple asters bloom- 
ing round it, if you lend your ear, will welcome you 
to its proud record. 

In vain is Cox's volley, for invisible hands are 
loosening the curtains that in a few minutes more 
will fall on the drama, ending the long, fierce struggle. 
Yes; let the last volley roar on past Gordon. He will 
wonder whether it was fired by friend or foe; but 
whichsoever, it matters not: his hope has flickered 
and gone out, for he sees Ord beginning to form up 
in the fields along the Bent Creek road; Gibbon's, 
and Griffin's corps, veiled by musketry and artillery 
smoke, coming out from the timber; Custer on the 
point of charging down into the village, threatening 
to cut off all communication between the wings of 
the Confederate forces. The sight was appalling, 
and Custer's threatening charge called for immediate 
action. Gordon sent a brigade of engineer troops, 
under that mild and well-bred gentleman. Colonel 



224 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Talcott, to stay him, and ordered Grimes and the 
cavalry to fall back to the village. 

Fast now they recoil, leaving many a brave com- 
rade behind them. They pass, on their way, the 
spot where a gun (or guns) was captured; and 
there lies Wilson, the color-bearer of the Fourteenth 
Virginia cavalry, mortally wounded, his beautiful 
bay mare standing beside him. He has just bade 
his friend Moffett good-bye, murmuring, " Moffett, 
it is hard to die just as the war is over! " And so 
it was, dying color-bearer; and when I stood where 
you fell, Wilson, my heart beat tenderly for you. Au- 
tumn flowers were blooming there, and a mist, like 
that of the morning when you made your last charge, 
was drenching the field, and here and there it had 
gathered like tears at the tips of the bending grass. 

The galloping column of cavalry, with golden- 
locked Custer at its head, has almost reached the 
Walker's Church road; drawn sabres are glinting; 
guidons are fluttering; foam is spotting the breasts 
of the horses who spring to the bugle-notes ready 
for the charge. 

A Confederate battery gallops up to the edge of 
the village, unlimbers its right section in front of 
the rear door of the Peet house and opens at Custer 
and Chamberlain's right, firing shell and shrapnel 
as fast as the cannoneers can load the guns. Long- 
street, watching Gordon's attack from the other 
side of the river, and seeing that it is failing, tells 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 225 

Alexander, who is at his side, to form a Kne quickly 
as a rally ing-point for the retreating forces. Alex- 
ander plants battery after battery, and Wilcox and 
the fragments of Hill's old corps and of Pickett's 
and Kershaw's divisions form in line. Heth takes 
his place on the left; and Heth, by the way, was a 
young, spare-faced, blue-eyed, and very lovable 
West Point man. His portrait now adorns the walls 
of the Westmoreland Club in Richmond. 

The historian of McGowan's South Carolina 
brigade says of the formation of this last line of 
battle which the Army of Northern Virginia ever 
made: " The nature of the campaign of the past 
week was easily read in the countenances and gait 
of the troops. Their faces were haggard, their 
step slow and unsteady. Bare skeletons of the old 
organizations remained, and those tottered along 
at wide intervals." 

A command about two hundred strong moved up 
in the rear of McGowan's brigade, and at once lay 
down; thereupon some one asked, " Whose regi- 
ment is that? " A soldier in the prone line replied 
with a grim smile, " Kershaw's division." Only 
two hundred and fifty left of the heroic division that 
turned the tide in the Wilderness, and whose volleys 
I can hear as I write these lines! 

Meanwhile, Ord's troops and the Fifth corps, 
led on by Griffin, are quickening their steps at 
every moment. Now they are all out in the open 



226 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

across the Lynchburg road, coming hke a mighty 
wave ready to break at any moment upon the dis- 
organized, retreating Confederates. Alas, the gar- 
den of poppies, red roses, and cockscombs that 
marched up so gaily is broken into patches and 
drifts back fast on the out-going tide of defeat. 

It is now about nine o'clock, and many a village 
and country church-bell is ringing for morning 
service, their tones dying away over blooming 
orchards and over fields where lambs are frisking; 
but where no smoke of battle rises, and no poor 
boys are breathing their last, their young blood 
staining the lea as at Appomattox. 



XIII 

Gordon has been through four or five dreadful 
hours, and they must have been trying hours to Lee 
also, who, when we left him, was waiting for dawn to 
come, and for Gordon to attack. 

On account of the mist it is doubtful if Lee, from 
his position beyond the river, could see Grimes as 
he mounted the fields to the Bent Creek road and 
thence on to the timber. Yet he could hear the 
guns and the uppermost question must have been: 
Has Grant been able to out-march me, and will 
Gordon encounter infantry.? Yes, General Lee, 
Grant had out-marched you, and I think the world 
will hold that he out-generaled you, too, in this last 
campaign. Minutes, quarters of an hour, went by; 
the firing seemed to hang at one spot, and every one 
who has been at an army headquarters during an 
engagement knows that when that is the case the 
advance is, momentarily at least, checked. Lee 
could stand the anxiety no longer, and sent the 
accomplished Venable, of his staff, to Gordon to 
ask him if he thought he could cut his way 

through. Gordon replied emphatically, *' Tell 

227 



228 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

General Lee that my command has been fought 
to a frazzle, and I fear I can do nothing unless I 
am heavily supported by Longstreet's corps! " 

Venable galloped back with the discouraging re- 
sponse, and says that Lee exclaimed, " There is 
nothing left me but to go and see General Grant, 
and I had rather die a thousand deaths." 

Rather die a thousand deaths! Rather die a 
thousand deaths! Here we have about the first 
and only recorded spontaneous, right-out-of-the- 
heart, furnace-glowing utterance from that remark- 
ably self -poised man; and, if true, it is a mighty in- 
teresting revelation. For what was there in the 
occasion so painful as to wring this burst of feeling 
from his habitually deliberate lips.f* It could not have 
been surprise. Had not these very circumstances, 
for the last year, cast their shadows before .^^ In 
fact had he not within less than twenty-four hours 
told his old friend of West Point days, Pendleton, 
that from the beginning he had doubted the ulti- 
mate success of the South if the Confederacy were 
not recognized by the powerful of the foreign govern- 
ments.'^ Again, when at midnight that same old 
West Point friend got back from his somewhat 
troublesome experience with Custer's cavalry, and 
seeing Lee in full uniform remarked upon his spick 
and span appearance, had Lee not answered, that he 
might have to meet Grant before the day closed.'^ 
Spick and span! Nelson on the day of Trafalgar 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 229 

put on all the medals, orders, and rich decorations 
he had won, and Caesar, as he felt the stabs of 
Brutus and Cassius, arranged his toga that he 
might fall gracefully. It does not seem, then, that 
the pain he felt could have come from the suddenness 
of surprise. It must have had some other source. 

Rather die a thousand deaths than to go and see 
Grant! What keenly sensitive point in this truly 
great nature had been pierced .f* Was a natural 
pride rebellious and mad that, after all those bril- 
liant battles, — Gaines's Mill, Manassas, Antietam, 
Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and 
Cold Harbor, — he should have to go and ask on 
what terms that valiant army might lay down its 
arms, as the armies of Buckner and Pemberton 
before him had done.^^ Or, if the exclamation sprang 
from a dread of humiliation, had he a right to 
harbor such a thought .^^ Had not Grant said to him 
in the note received the evening before: " Peace 
being my great desire, there is but one condition 
I would insist upon, namely, that the men and 
oflScers surrendered shall be disqualified from taking 
up arms against the Government of the United 
States until properly exchanged " ? Was there 
anything in those terms to justify a fear of humilia- 
tion in their execution.'^ 

In view of the fact that his going would bring 
peace to the land, whence came the keen pang.f* 
Had not he himself said in his reply to Grant's note, 



230 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

quoted above, that, " The restoration of peace should 
be the sole object of all " ? Why should he prefer 
a thousand deaths, then, rather than go to see the 
man at the head of an army which, through its 
multitude of men, had overcome the Army of 
Northern Virginia, when that visit would bring 
peace, peace, " the sole object of all " ? Venable was 
an honorable man ; but, in the light of the fact that 
it was an hour when greatness called for greatness, 
I wonder and wonder if Lee ever made just that 
remark. If he did, it only tells me this, — that 
beneath all glamour and earthly glory lies the com- 
mon clay of our natures. 

Well, he at once sent for Longstreet, whose 
forces during the night had moved up till the trains 
at New Hope Church impeded their further progress, 
and who were then throwing up a line of intrench- 
ments, breast-high, with an abatis in front across 
the road, the left of the works resting on the head- 
waters of Devil's Creek, flowing north into the 
James, the right on those of Wolf Creek which soon 
finds its way through dense, wild-turkey-haunted 
woods to the Appomattox. 

Longstreet rode forward. In his memoirs he 
says that Lee " was dressed in a suit of new uniform, 
sword and sash, a handsomely embroidered belt, 
boots, and a pair of gold spurs; " but adds that 
" the handsome apparel and brave bearing failed 
to conceal his profound depression." Lee, after 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 231 

gracefully saluting Longstreet, — this old hero still 
had his right arm in a sling from the almost fatal 
wound he received in the Wilderness, — told him 
that Gordon's men had met with a formidable force 
through which he could not break, and sought his 
views as to what should be done. Longstreet, 
with his usual inflexible resolution, asked if the 
bloody sacrifice of his army could in any way help 
the cause in other quarters. Lee said he thought 
not. " Then," replied Longstreet, " your situation 
speaks for itself." 

They were standing near an almost burned-out 
fire. Lee called Mahone, who was near by. The 
brave little blue-eyed man came forward, and Lee 
put the same question to him; but, before answering, 
Mahone kicked some of the embers together, and 
then aflSrmed Longstreet 's judgment. 

Lee in his note of the night before had appointed 
ten A. M. as the time when he would like to meet 
Grant on the road beyond New Hope Church, and 
while waiting for the hour to come, and no doubt 
longing every minute for an answer from Grant, he 
had a talk with Alexander. 

Lee, from the roadside, as Alexander was riding by, 
called to him, and when Alexander joined him, Lee, 
after peeling off the bark, took a seat on a felled oak. 
He then produced a field-map and said, " Well, we 
have come to the Junction, and they seem to be 
here ahead of us. What have we got to do to-day? " 



232 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

A long and interesting interview followed, that 
can be found in Alexander's most admirable military 
memoirs, wbicli, like those of Stiles and Sorrel, 
breathe sincerity. 

Alexander was glad of the chance to talk with Lee, 
for, ever since the afternoon before, when Pendleton 
told him, as they rode side by side, of his going 
to Lee with the self-appointed council's suggestion, 
he had been mulling over the matter, and had thought 
out a plan of his own to save Lee and them all 
from the ignominy of surrender. I know just how 
he felt, for he was a man of fine grain, and I 
shall never forget its manifestation during an in- 
terview I had with him in Richmond at the time of 
the undraping of Jefferson Davis's monument. We 
were at the Jefferson Hotel, and that stately and 
capacious hostelry was thronged with ex-Confed- 
erates, all proudly dressed in their gray, and cheer- 
ing to the echo every time the orchestra struck up 
one of their favorite Southern airs. 

At Alexander's suggestion we had withdrawn to 
an alcove under the stairway; and while we were 
talking over West Point days he told me of a row 
he had had there with a classmate just before grad- 
uation, a row so bitter that neither spoke to the 
other on parting from the Academy. Now it so 
happened that this classmate was the senior aide 
to the chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac, 
to whom, at Appomattox, the Confederate batteries 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 233 

under Alexander had to be turned over. On first 
going to headquarters officially in regard to details 
the day after Lee met Grant, Alexander said that 
he had made it a point not to notice his classmate, 
whose face wore a look of friendly greeting. The 
next day he had to go there again, and his classmate, 
standing at his tent-door, beckoned to him. Alex- 
ander, after a struggle with his West Point hate, 
turned his steps toward him, wondering what he 
wanted. To his surprise, his old-time enemy drew 
a large roll of bills from his pocket, stripped off a 
goodly number, and held them out, saying, " Aleck, 
you are welcome to this; I have more than I want, 
and you may need it." 

" Do you know, Morris," said Alexander, his 
soft voice trembling with emotion, " I declined the 
money, although I had hardly a cent in the world, 
I felt so badly and ugly over surrendering; but 
I see now that I did myself and him a great 
wrong." 

He paused. I glanced at his face, and his eyes 
were swimming. My only excuse for allowing this 
episode to delay the narrative is that the reader 
may get some idea of the man who was talking with 
Lee, and what surrender meant to him and the 
Southern army. 

Well, Alexander developed his plans warmly to 
Lee, finally urging with the desperation of youth, 
that the men should take to the woods, understand- 



234 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

ing that they were to rally on Johnston or report 
armed to the governors of their respective states. 
Lee listened quietly, and then replied to this ob- 
viously impracticable scheme that he had not over 
fifteen thousand muskets, and that even if all 
should report for duty their numbers would be too 
small to accomplish anything, and it would end in 
nothing but a destructive, malignant, guerrilla war- 
fare. He then added, " General, you and I as Chris- 
tian men have no right to consider only how this 
would affect us; we must consider its effect on the 
country as a whole; if I took your advice we would 
bring on a state of affairs it would take the country 
years to recover from. ... I am going to meet 
Grant at ten a. m. and surrender the army on the 
condition of not fighting again until exchanged, and 
take the consequences of my act." 

Now we have the Lee of Venable and Alexander, 
but it is only fair to the former to complete his 
account of what was said after Lee's exclamation 
about dying a thousand deaths. " Convulsed 
with passionate grief," goes on Venable, " many 
were the wild words which we spoke, as we stood 
round him. Said one, ' Oh, general, what will history 
say of the surrender of the army in the field? ' 

" He replied, ' Yes, I know they will say hard 
things of us.' (No, no. General Lee, you were 
mistaken: no one ever has said or will say hard 
things of you or your gallant army for surrendering 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 235 

in the field.) ' They will not understand how we 
were overwhelmed with numbers.' (Yes, the world 
thoroughly understands that we had five men to 
your one.) ' But that is not the question, colonel 
fVenable was a colonel], the question is: Is it right 
to surrender the army? If it is right, then I will 
take all the responsibility.' " 

In these portraitures by Venable and Alexander, 
what living examples we have of how enthusiasm 
and love build up and festoon this world's heroes. 
But I find no fault. Climb on, blooming glory, 
round the pure-minded and dignified Lee! climb 
on, and ever climb on, around the modest, peace- 
bringing, and magnanimous Grant. 

Lee finally mounted Traveller and, without 
notifying either Longstreet or Gordon, set off to 
meet Grant. His course was toward the rear, that 
is, along the road toward New Hope Church. He 
soon met a battalion of artillery withdrawing from 
its bivouac by the side of Rocky Run, and one of 
its officers says that it was about nine o'clock, 
and that Traveller was finely groomed, his bridle 
and bit polished until they shone like silver. Lee 
was accompanied by a courier and Colonels Mar- 
shall and Taylor of his staff. 

Up the leaning ridge that faces the midday sun 
and pours its summer showers and melting snow 
down into the little murmuring run, went Lee. 
Captain Outlaw and the officers of the Eleventh 



236 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

North Carolina saw him, and from his unusual 
dress concluded that he was on his way to surrender, 
and that in that case the hour had come to carry 
out their resolution of two nights before, namely, 
to commit their colors to the flames; and soon, up 
among the fresh green leaves of spring went the 
smoke of their destruction, but not quite all, for 
Captain Outlaw tore off a little piece for a memento 
that now, from time to time, in his ripe old age, he 
holds in his hand and looks at with warm eyes and 
welling heart. On went Lee and soon came to 
Longstreet's line of intrenchments; and as he passed 
through them that intrepid corps gave him cheer 
upon cheer. Go ask the field of Manassas, Gettys- 
burg, far-away Chickamauga, and the Wilderness, 
and they will tell you with pride where every one 
of its colors flew. 

After clearing the rear-guard, the orderly bearing 
the flag of truce was put in front and Lee proceeded 
slowly on his distressful journey; and I can imagine 
Traveller, with ears alert, looking down the red 
streak of road bordered on both sides by still woods. 
Great was the hour, and great was the man he bore, 
but who knows what was passing through his 
rider's mind.^^ Never had Traveller carried him on a 
mission like this. For the comfort of Lee I wish 
that, as he rode, the reality of the present had by 
some magic come and enveloped him, and then, 
instead of Sheridan's and Gordon's angry guns, he 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 237 

would have heard from Southland and Northland 
the mighty song of the triumphs of Peace, 

Before long a staff officer from the front over- 
took them. Lee, after hearing what he had to say, 
asked him to go back and notify Longstreet and 
Gordon that he was on his way to see Grant, and 
rode on. 

Meanwhile, Gordon had made repeated ap- 
plications to Longstreet to come to his aid, which 
Longstreet could not do; but, as soon as Lee's 
message was received, Longstreet sent it to Gordon 
by Captain Sims, who had been serving on his staff 
since the untimely death of his own commander, 
A. P. Hill, telling Sims to say to Gordon that, in 
view of his inability to come to his aid, he might, if 
he thought proper, ask Sheridan to suspend hostil- 
ities till they could hear the result of the conference 
between Lee and Grant. 

Sims set out for Gordon, whose forces by this 
time were threatened with immediate rout, for, 
save Munford's and Rosser's brigades of Fitz Lee's 
cavalry, who, on the repulse of the main attack, 
with Fitz Lee himself at the head, had fled up the 
pike toward Lynchburg, all the infantry and remain- 
ing cavalry had fallen back till their skirmish line 
lay within three hundred yards of the Court-House, 
and Ord, the Fifth corps and Sheridan were on the 
point of completing their destruction. 

And now, while Sims is hastening to Gordon, let 



238 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

me say that a stone marks the spot where this last 
skirmish line lay, and that, when last October, in a 
fog heavy and cold I stood beside it, the chilled 
crickets beneath the sere matted grass at the foot of 
the stone were responding feebly to the silence of the 
fields, and in a small pasture, near a couple of old, 
unpruned apple trees not far from where Gordon 
stood, a perfectly white cow, and beside her a red 
one with a white scarf adown her shoulder, were 
grazing peacefully. The haggard apple trees, the for- 
lorn, red-chimneyed houses behind them — there 
are less than a dozen in the historic old village and 
in the yard of one of them, near the McLean house 
ruins, I saw a lean, aged, black and tan hound out- 
stretched fast asleep — well, houses and hills and 
the woods beyond the river, all loomed mysteriously 
in that cold mist. But, while standing there gazing 
around, a puff of wind came by and the mist began to 
steal away, and I thought I was fortunate in seeing 
the field of Appomattox clothed as Gordon saw it 
that other morning so long ago. 

When Sims galloped up to Gordon — the battery 
at the Peet house was firing rapidly — and by 
word of mouth shouted Longstreet's message, Gor- 
don was, as we already know, in a most trying 
position, for he expected disaster to break upon 
him at any minute. His discomfited, down-hearted 
men were drifting by him in shoals, he could 
see our infantry ready like shrieking hawks to 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 239 

swoop down upon him, batteries going into position 
on every knoll, the cannoneers running to their posts 
alongside their frowning guns, and the flash of 
Sheridan's sabres as they were drawn preparatory 
for a charge. 

What a contrast with that morning at the break- 
ing out of the war when he marched through At- 
lanta at the head of a company of Georgia moun- 
taineers wearing coonskin caps and some one from 
the admiring mob lining the side-walk asked him, 
" What company is that, sir? " and, on Gordon 
answering proudly, " This is the Mountain Rifles," 
one of his men, a tall Georgia cracker, exclaimed, 
"Mountain hell! We ain't no Mountain Rifles, 
we're the Raccoon Roughs." 

Yes, it was a contrast; gone was his smile at the 
answer; gone were the hopes of the crowd that had 
cheered him at the head of the Mountain Rifles; 
Atlanta a pitiable ruin; and now he was about to 
close the eyes of the dying Confederacy. 

On receiving Longstreet's message, all of his 
aides being away on duty, Gordon begged Sims 
to go at once to Sheridan and ask him to suspend 
hostilities. Off dashed Captain Sims, and as soon 
as he had passed Gary's small Confederate brigade, 
for want of a flag of truce, or even a handkerchief 
to display, he tied a new white crash towel to the 
tip of his sword and proceeded on his way. A piece 
of that towel, and of the drawer of the table on 



240 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

which Lee signed the terms of surrender, Mrs. Cus- 
ter has kindly given me, and they, with a piece of 
the flowing red flannel necktie which her husband 
wore that morning, hang framed on my wall. 

It took only a few strides of Sims' horse, after 
having passed through Gary's line, to bring his 
rider to a group of the Seventh Michigan cavalry, 
Devin's division, near whom, dismounted, stood 
Colonel Whitaker, Custer's chief of staff. " Where 
is your commanding oflScer, General Sheridan? " 
asked Sims, " I have a message for him." " He 
is not here," replied Whitaker, " but Custer is, 
and you had better see him." 

" Can you take me to him? " inquired Sims. 
" Yes," answered Whitaker, mounting his horse. 
They soon struck Custer's division pressing at full 
gallop up the Le Grand road toward Gordon's left, 
and hurried to the head of the column. As 
they rode up to Custer, he turned on Sims and 
asked, " Who are you and what do you wish? " 
Sims replied, " I am of General Longstreet's staff, 
but am the bearer of a message from General Gor- 
don to General Sheridan asking for a suspension 
of hostilities until General Lee can be heard from, 
who has gone down the road to meet General Grant 
to have a conference." Custer exclaimed, " We 
will listen to no terms but that- of unconditional 
surrender. We are behind your army now and it is 
at our mercy." Sims asked, " You will allow me to 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 241 

carry this message back? " " Yes," responded 
Custer. " Do you wish to send an officer? " in- 
quired Sims. Custer, after a Kttle hesitation, 
directed Col. E. W. Whitaker, his chief of staff, and 
Major George G. Briggs, 7th Michigan cavalry, 
to go with Sims. Whitaker, in a letter to me, says 
that Custer gave him the following message. " Take 
that truce and go with the officer to General Lee, 
and say to him that he (Custer) could not stop the 
charge unless an unconditional surrender is made, 
as he (Custer) is not in command on this field." 
At the same time Custer sent another aide to Sheri- 
dan with the news, and Sheridan says the aide-de- 
camp, hat in hand, dashed up to him exclaiming, 
'* Lee has surrendered; don't charge; the white 
flag is up." 

Whitaker having reached Gordon, Gordon asked 
him to go with two of his aides, Jones of Alabama 
and Brown of Georgia, and stop our infantry still 
on the move. Fast they galloped. Brown dis- 
playing Sims' towel, and as they passed Wells' 
brigade of cavalry in line of battle, Whitaker cried 
out, " Lower your carbines, men, lower your car- 
bines; you will never have to raise them again in 
this war." 

Striking Chamberlain's line, Whitaker cried out, 
" This is unconditional surrender; this is the 
end! " And then on. 

One of his Confederate companions reined up. 



242 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

and drawing near Chamberlain, said, " I am just 
from Gordon and Longstreet, and Gordon says 
for God's sake stop that infantry or hell will be to 
pay." 

Chamberlain had to tell him that he had no 
authority to stop the movement, that Sheridan was 
in command. " Then I'll go to him," said the 
oflScer; and off he went, and the humane Chamber- 
lain ceased pushing his division. 

Gordon, on Sims' return, sent orders by Major 
Parker of Huger's battalion to Lieutenant Wright 
of Clutter's battery at the Peet house to cease firing. 

Let us pause a moment. The last shot has been 
fired; the gun is still smoking, and its fated projectile 
goes muttering over Whitaker and the bearers of 
the flag of truce, on toward our lines, where with 
bated breath and in joy of heavenly expectancy our 
own men are awaiting the oncoming flags. Blind 
to everything but its deadly purpose, on past the 
heralds of peace, rushes that dooming projectile, 
on and plunges through the breast of Lieutenant 
Clark of the One Hundred and Eighty-fifth New 
York. Inscrutable Fate, as the blood spurted from 
that youthful heart, I hope you were satisfied. 

At about that very same moment, too, when not 
another life need have been sacrificed, a musket-ball 
sped from the Confederate lines, and mortally 
wounded William Montgomery of the One Hundred 
and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania. Fate's victim in 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 243 

this case was less than sixteen years old, and out of 
his photograph, now before me, gazes a boy with 
a pure, sweet, hauntingly earnest face. 

Soon all firing ceased ; but the ranks did not stop 
till they had gained a position from which they 
could overlook the Court-House and the remnants 
of Gordon's troops falling back in utter and hope- 
less confusion beyond the river. With this scene be- 
fore them, they halted, guns were brought to an 
order, colors were planted, and all stood looking, 
wrapped in flooding joy. It meant the end of the 
war, and a gray-haii'ed officer exclaimed, " Glory 
to God! " and Chamberlain replied, "Yes, and on 
earth peace and good-will toward men." 

Sims had barely reached Gordon on his return 
from our lines before Custer appeared and, with 
his usual assurance, demanded in the name of 
General Sheridan the unconditional surrender of 
all Gordon's troops. To this abrupt demand Gor- 
don replied with boldly defiant resolution that he 
would not pledge himself to any such terms, and 
that if Sheridan in the face of the flag of truce in- 
sisted on fighting, the responsibility for bloodshed 
would be on Sheridan and not on Gordon. Custer 
then asked to see Longstreet, and Major Hunter, 
a fine type of the Virginia gentleman, a member 
of Gordon's staff, escorted him to the old hero. 

On Longstreet Custer made the same peremptory 
demand for unconditional surrender. Longstreet 



244 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

told him that he was not in command of the Army 
of Northern Virginia and, annoyed by Custer's 
brusque manner, — the old fellow naturally was in 
no humor that morning to stand impertinence, and 
especially that of a brassy, yellow-haired boy, — gave 
him to understand that he was entirely out of his 
place, and finally let fly some English that was 
quite vigorous. Custer was acute enough to see that 
his boyish game of bluff would not work, and I can 
fancy his laughing, contagious smile as he parted 
with the indignant old general, who assigned Major 
Wade Hampton Gibbs, one of Custer's West Point 
friends, to show him out of his lines. 

Meanwhile Sheridan, who was about three quar- 
ters of a mile from the Court-House, noticing a 
large group of officers about it, and supposing that 
Custer was among them, started to join them. He 
had his headquarters flag behind him, and as soon 
as he drew near Gordon's lines, was fired on. Sheri- 
dan halted, and taking off his hat, called to them 
that they were violating the flag of truce; but the 
firing did not stop, and boiling mad, he took refuge 
in a ravine. Later he sent the sergeant back with 
his flag and an aide to Gordon's group, demanding 
what their conduct meant. 

Gordon rode forward to meet him, and says that 
Sheridan was mounted on a very handsome horse — 
yes, we know about Rienzi. The interview was 
not very pleasant, for Sheridan did not have a 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 245 

gracious manner. But after explaining the situation 
and reaching a mutual understanding, they dis- 
mounted and sat together on the ground. The 
silence that had begun to reign was broken suddenly 
by a roll of musketry. Sheridan jumped to his feet, 
glaring fiercely at Gordon, and asked, " What does 
that mean, sir.f* " " It's my fault," replied Gordon. 
" I have forgotten to notify that command." 

As none of his staff were available, Vanderbilt 
Allen, of Sheridan's staff, and one of my fellow 
West Point cadets, was sent to Gary's lines direct- 
ing him to cease firing. And do you know that Gary 
insisted on " Van's " surrender, and when he learned 
that the army was about to lay down its arms, took 
off his sword and slipped away, away from his 
colors and comrades, and from sharing the greatest 
event in the history of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, for it was its transfiguration. 

Well, I will not cumber the narrative with all 
that happened in the next hour and a half at the 
Court-House; let it suflSce that Longstreet, Wilcox, 
Heth and other West Pointers from the South, 
joined Ord, Sheridan, Griffin, Custer and Pennington 
from the North, in the friendliest spirit, and agreed 
to wait till Grant and Lee had met. But Long- 
street could not rest easy till word of the situation 
was sent to Humphreys, who, he feared, would 
attack his lines at New Hope Church; and Sheridan 
sent his chief of staff, " Tony " Forsythe, escorted 



246 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

by Colonel Fairfax of Longstreet's staff, back through 
the Confederate lines with a message to Meade of 
the agreement they had reached. 

" Tony," for so everybody called him, was a tall, 
statuesque West Point man of light complexion, 
very companionable, dignified, but with an under- 
current of natural gaiety. I wish now that I had 
asked him all about this ride when, with boon com- 
panions, I sat till late hours in the City Club of 
Columbus, Ohio, with Governor Powell, John Taylor, 
Galloway, and Dennison, and heard him talk of 
Arizona jack-rabbits, as we sipped some fragrant 
old Scotch. 

Meanwhile the troops were resting on their arms; 
those of the Army of the Potomac, to their manhood 
and honor, showing no wild or barbaric elation, and 
the privates of Lee's Army, heavy at heart, spec- 
ulating wistfully on what was to be their fate. One 
of their number has written that there was an in- 
describable sadness over them all, but that they, 
feeling their common misfortune, were very gentle 
in their words to each other, sharing liberally the 
little food that remained. 



XIV 

And now let us return to Lee. 

Having gained a mile or so beyond Longstreet's 
lines, he halted and dismounted, and sent Colonel 
Taylor, preceded by the courier, forward. The 
courier soon met my friend, Colonel Whittier of 
Humphreys' staff, bearing a flag of truce. Whittier 
was an uncommonly fine-looking and prepossessing 
young fellow, with charming manners; and some- 
where on the campaign from the Wilderness to 
Petersburg he shared my tent one night, and by 
its lone candle we talked long, and when he rode 
away in the morning he carried my heart with him. 

The courier asked him if he had a letter for General 
Lee, and if so, offered to deliver it; but Whittier 
told him he must deliver it in person. They soon 
came up with Taylor, who led the way to Lee, 
standing a little off, beside the road. The letter 
read as follows : — 

"April 9, 1865. 
" General: Your note of yesterday is received. 

I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace. 

247 



248 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

The meeting proposed for ten a. m. to-day could 
lead to no good. I will state, however, that I am 
equally desirous for peace with yourself, and the 
whole North entertains the same feeling. The 
terms upon which peace can be had are well under- 
stood. By the South laying down their arms, they 
would hasten that most desirable event, save thou- 
sands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of 
property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping that 
all our difficulties may be settled without the loss 
of another life, I subscribe myself, etc., 

"TJ. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 
" General R. E. Lee." 

This communication must have brought great 
disappointment to Lee, for I am sure he had been 
confident, if Grant would only meet him, of securing 
terms for a general peace that would save him and 
the army from the pain of surrender, and the South 
from a dismal remembrance of unqualified defeat. 
But this straightforward, kindly note completely 
dashed any such hopes; the surrender of the Army 
of Northern Virginia was inevitable; and to give 
the hard stony fact emphasis, Whittier says that, 
while Lee was reading the letter, Sheridan's angry 
guns from the direction of the Court-House could 
be distinctly heard. 

Lee, without reading Grant's letter a second time, 
began to dictate to Marshall the following reply: 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 249 

" General: I received your note of this morning 
on the picket-Hne, whither I had come to meet you 
and ascertain what terms were embraced in your 
proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender 
of this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance 
with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday, 
for that purpose. 

" R. E. Lee, General. 

"Lieutenant-General TJ. S. Grant. 
"April 9, 1865." 

While the above was being written, an aide from 
Longstreet, Colonel Haskell, with a message to Lee, 
swept by like the wind, not discovering Lee till 
he had passed him; and, having but one arm, the 
colonel was unable to check his horse at once. But 
as soon as he got control he reversed her course and, 
on nearing Lee, threw himself to the ground. The 
mare's large pink nostrils were flaring wide, and she 
was panting fast as, with lowered head, she walked 
by his side. 

Lee hastened toward him exclaiming, " What is 
it.f* What is it.^^ Oh, why did you do it.^^ You have 
ruined your beautiful mare! " 

The history of that mad ride is as follows: 

After Lee had left Longstreet, Fitz Lee sent in 
word that he had found a gap for the escape of the 
army, and Longstreet felt that that news was so im- 
portant that he told Haskell to overtake Lee and 



250 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

bring him back before he saw Grant, if he had to 
kill his mare. This favorite blooded animal, so 
Longstreet tells us, had been led all the way from 
Petersburg and, for the first time, had been saddled 
that very morning, Haskell intending to call on her 
to fly with him, if necessary, from the impending 
surrender. 

I am truly glad to tell you, reader, that the 
beautiful, high-bred, and high-spirited creature 
soon recovered. What! Break down under a 
single heat carrying a message on a field like that, 
and perhaps the blood of Sir Henry in her veins! 
And had he not worn the colors of the South against 
American Eclipse.'^ No, no! She was sold the 
following day to one of our officers for a good round 
sum in gold, but I suspect that visions of Traveller 
and the fields of Virginia passed before her as in her 
Northern stall she dreamed of that heat. 

Lee did not credit Fitz Lee's report, and his 
judgment was soon confirmed by the arrival of 
another aide from Longstreet, saying that it was 
a mistake. He finished his letter and Marshall 
handed it to Whittier, with the request from the 
general that he would ask Humphreys not to push 
his lines. Humphreys forwarded the letter to Meade, 
and Meade, thinking time and some good might 
result from so doing, opened it, and then sent it on 
to Grant, suggesting that it might be well for him 
to see Lee, and that he had granted a short truce. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 251 

Meanwhile, Humphreys, not hearing from Meade, 
moved on, sending Whittier ahead to notify Marshall 
that he had had no orders to suspend hostilities. 
Marshall again pleaded that Humphreys should 
not persevere, for it meant a useless sacrifice of 
life, but Humphreys, with his line of battle deployed, 
would not listen to any delay and actually was 
sending word to Lee, who was in plain sight, to 
get out of the way, when fortunately Forsythe ap- 
peared, directly from Sheridan. Lee sent Taylor 
with Forsythe to Meade, who, having heard his 
story, agreed to an armistice until Lee could go 
and see Grant. It was this detached duty that 
accounts for Taylor's not being with Lee at the 
McLean house, for I have no doubt that he would 
have asked this deeply attached and seasoned aide 
to go with him. 

Lee thereupon rode back to within about three 
quarters of a mile of the Court-House, where he 
dismounted, and sat down at the foot of an apple 
tree by the roadside. Alexander, who was near by, 
with thoughtfulness for Lee's comfort, had some 
fence-rails laid or piled under the tree, and covered 
them with red artillery blankets for him to rest 
upon. 

Meade selected for the bearer of Lee's letter to 
Grant, Lieutenant Pease, an aide to Seth Williams, 
and many were the happy days I passed with him 
and others at Meade's headquarters. He was above 



252 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

middle height and firmly built, had dark-brown, 
earnest eyes and reddish hair. 

When Pease overtook Grant, his party were 
breathing their horses near an open field, and he and 
RawHns were sitting on a log. Pease gave him 
Lee's letter. Grant tore off the end of the envelope 
and drew forth the note. After reading it, without 
a change of expression, he passed it to the pale and 
worn Rawlins at his side, one of the best friends that 
any man like Grant ever had in the world, saying, 
" Here, General Rawlins." 

When Rawlins had read it. Grant asked, *' Well, 
how do you think that will do.f^ " 

Rawlins replied emphatically, "lihinkthat will do." 

Grant at once wrote to Lee as follows : 

"April 9, 1865. 
" General R. E. Lee, 

" Commanding C. S. Army: 
" Your note of this date is but this moment 
(11:50 A. M.) received, in consequence of my having 
passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg Road 
to the Farmville and Lynchburg Road. I am at this 
writing about four miles west of Walker's Church, 
and will push forward to the front for the purpose 
of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road 
where you wish the interview to take place will 
meet me. 

" U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General." 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 253 

Grant gave this dispatch to Babcock, directing 
him to take the shortest road he could find to reach 
Lee. 

That was a famous duty Grant put on his young 
and loyal aide, and there was something mysteri- 
ously fitting in the choice. For a youth with a 
gentler face or with more of the natural bloom of 
charity and good-will in it, or with less reprehensive 
blue eyes, could not have been found in the army. 
Grant at once set off for the Court-House. 

Meanwhile, Lee, joined by Longstreet, had ex- 
pressed to the latter his anxiety lest Grant, on account 
of his first proposition not having been accepted, 
might now insist on harsher terms. Longstreet tried 
to reassure him that he knew Grant well enough to 
say his terms would not be harsher than Lee might 
demand under like circumstances. But Lee's con- 
cern as to how Grant would deal with him, for some 
reason, was not laid. Whence came his distrust of 
Grant? Was it because camp gossip of old associates 
had drifted to Lee, in substance not unlike that 
which I heard myself from old army officers at Fort 
Monroe, after Donelson and Shiloh, that Grant was 
a rather common and inoffensive fellow.'^ And I 
wonder, too, if the fact that Grant had piled up his 
dead, and apparently without mercy, before the 
works of Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, had tended 
to confirm in Lee's mind the gossip as to his charac- 
ter? Might not the heart of that " common " 



254 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

fellow be vindictive as well as cold? Oh, the refined 
and hidden qualities in the clay of those called 
common! and the scornful indifference that has 
been shown them! In the most sublime of the 
Psalms, the nineteenth, we read, " Keep back thy 
servant from presumptuous sins; let them not 
have dominion over me." 

Or was Lee's concern as to the terms because he 
had caught the eye of that member of the inner 
court which sits in judgment, day and night, on 
the deeds of men — the judge who had argued 
silently, with benevolence yet with warmth, on 
the Farmville hills, that, defeat being inevitable, 
he ought to accept his fate without the loss of 
another life, — a responsibility which Grant had 
raised in his first note and repeated in his last? 

Lee's heart was tender, and, on more than one 
occasion in his loneliness (for no head of any army 
ever led a more isolated life), we know it had bled se- 
cretly over the sorrowful state of his men and of the 
Southern people; yet it was not of the kind to tor- 
ment itself over exquisite condemnatory abstractions. 
No, as he sat there on the bank by the roadside 
waiting to hear where he should meet Grant and 
lay down his arms, that was not the source of his 
mind's worry. The trail to it will be struck, as I 
believe, in less subtle fields of quest. Why, after 
the fall of Petersburg, Richmond, and the over- 
whelming disaster at Sailor's Creek, should his 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 255 

hope of ultimate success have lived or even flickered 
for a moment, and why did not that epitome of 
the manliness of his day yield at Farmville? What 
carried him on from there against the pitchy dark- 
ness and steep desperation of the situation, on, 
resolutely, after the heads of divisions and corps 
had virtually told him that, in their opinions, the 
end had come? And above all, when he knew that 
his army had wasted away to a mere shadow and the 
few who remained were worn out with hunger and 
fatigue? What qualities in his being were at the 
helm, blind to facts and deaf to reason? 

Although I fully realize that as a soldier he was 
bound to effect a junction with Johnston if possible, 
yet to me, as he appears leading on that fragment 
of the old Army of Northern Virginia, from whose 
heart hope had fled, leading it on in the face of that 
utterly dismal and starless situation, there is some- 
thing so fraught with doom in his conduct that a 
shadow of brooding awe falls over this page, and 
lo ! I see ^Eschylus, soldier of Marathon and Salamis, 
taking his place in the silent, hollow-eyed, famished 
column; and, as on through the darkness following 
Lee, I see him, hear him murmuring the preludes 
of his immortal tragedies; and over Lee hover the 
spirits of Agamemnon, Orestes, Prometheus, and 
the pursuing, unappeasable Erinnyes. 

And now let us draw near to Lee and give him a 
steady, kindly, searching look, unmindful of the 



256 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

showering stars of yellow, red, and green that are 
falling about him from, so to speak, exploding bombs 
of eulogy. Nor as to an idol or a marvel let us draw 
near, but as to a fellow mortal, genuinely true to 
the real in every, and the best, sense of the word; 
one who, though famous, was not honeycombed 
with ambition or tainted with cunning or cant; 
and though a soldier and wearing a soldier's laurels, 
yet never craved or sought honors except as they 
bloomed on deeds done for the glory of his lawfully 
constituted and acknowledged civil authority; in 
short, a soldier to whom the sense of duty was a 
gospel, and a man of the world whose only rule of 
life was, that life should be upright and stainless. 
I cannot but think that Providence meant, through 
him, to prolong the ideal of the gentleman in this 
world. 

And now to those high moral standards, warmest 
family affections, imperial qualities, — Lee had a 
bearing that would have made him at home among 
princes, — add wealth, station, an imposing stature, 
a noble countenance, and abilities of the first order, 
and, as the background of those preeminent attri- 
butes, a glowing series of rare victories in the cause 
of the Confederacy with its appealingly tragic life 
and death, and it is easy to see why, through the 
natural impulses of our nature, Lee has become the 
embodiment of one of the world's ideals, that of the 
soldier, the Christian, and the gentleman. And 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 257 

from the bottom of my heart I thank Heaven, since 
the commercial spirit of our time has grown into a 
sordid, money-gorged, godless, snoring monster, for 
the comfort of having a character like Lee's to look 
at, standing in burnished glory above the smoke of 
Mammon's altars. 

But we are not seeking the subliitiation of his 
mortalness; rather we would see the ingrained 
qualities of his nature which carried this modern 
Prometheus, those last two days of the Confederacy, 
on to the storm-battered crags of Scythia. 

In manner and mood becoming his native gentle- 
ness of character and unsullied life, and above all, 
the tender associations of the morning (it was Palm 
Sunday and the church-bells of the land were calling 
from steeple to steeple), let us look at him as a 
fellow mortal, look at him and find, if we can, the 
reason why, as he sits there by that Virginia road- 
side amid the wreck of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, nothing Longstreet does or may say as to 
Grant's magnanimity of character assuages his 
troubled mind. With this end in view then, and in 
order that our survey may be direct, true and sub- 
stantial, let us detach him from his surroundings, 
penetrate the glamour and deal with his personality, 
that marvellous compound the secrets of whose 
making are in the breast of Nature herself, and 
which she in her wisdom turns over from the cradle 
into the unfeeling hands of Destiny to direct to its end. 



258 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

So, note, if you will, the stately angle at which he 
holds his head, and the peremptory silencing gaze 
of those potent eyes, studded with the light of 
conscious personal worth and a distinguished ances- 
try; eyes which, as those of all men of like parts, 
aloofness and dignity, are ever quietly on their guard. 
And do not fail to note, also, how quickly his win- 
ning openness of address shelves into an unfathom- 
able ocean of reserve; the open gate, the blooming 
meadow, figuratively, closing, like a floe in a polar 
sea. This cold simile is not overdrawn: he greeted 
his fellow men with charming, dignified kindliness, 
but that was the end of it, and there is no one among 
i the living or dead, outside of his own family, who 
has ever claimed to have been on close confidential 
relations with him. 

Under the habitually unruffled composure of 
that ocean of reserve, and dominated, as I believe, 
by two master spirits, stands the authentic Lee. 
And who were those master spirits, which, blind 
to facts and deaf to reason, drove him on from 
Farmville.f^ Were they creations of his own.f* No, 
not at all. Nature herself had planted them. And 
what were they.^ One, an all-pervading unconscious 
pride, a pride not sordid or arrogant, but lofty. The 
other, sovereignly cogent and diffused through his 
whole being and pulsing in every vein, namely, a 
burning, even fierce enthusiasm. These, in my 
judgment, were the ingrained, controlling temper- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 259 

amental qualities in Robert E. Lee. The former 
could not stand the hoar frost of defeat in a cause 
he believed right; the latter converted him at 
danger's first challenge, as was again and again 
displayed in the field, into a prompt and inveterate 
fighter. As for instance, at Antietam, although he 
had met and stood off McClellan, yet with such 
carnage that it was in effect a defeat, still for a day 
after the battle he held his ground among his dead, 
silently, yet resolutely, proclaiming to his adversary 
to come on if he dared. So, too, he stood for a day 
at Gettysburg, after his frightful repulses, inviting 
Meade to attack; and when with his bleeding army 
he reached the flooded Potomac after Gettysburg 
to find every bridge swept away, undismayed he 
turned his back on the raging stream and, planting 
his colors, defiantly bade the Army of the Potomac 
to strike. Who can forget, either, how quickly he 
accepted Hooker's gage of battle in the Wilderness, 
and how a year later (the violets were just in bloom 
again for the first time in the blood-stained woods) 
he plunged at Grant. No, no eagle that ever flew, no 
tiger that ever sprang, had more natural courage; 
and I will guarantee that every field he was on, if 
you ask them about him, will speak of the unquailing 
battle-spirit of his mien. Be not deceived: Lee, 
notwithstanding his poise, was naturally the most 
belligerent bull-dog man at the head of any army 
in the war. 



XV 

And now, as there by the roadside he sits, his 
nature distempered by the balk of its two masterful, 
earthy, incarnated spirits, we discover the reason 
why nothing Longstreet can say assuages his 
troubled mind; and why the idea of surrender is so 
galling. 

Not then, and peradventure never, did it dawn 
on Lee that it was not Grant primarily, but a 
country with a destiny against which he had drawn 
his sword, that had cast him down. And mistake 
not, by the significance of this fact Lee mounts the 
dire, footworn steps of Tragedy, one of the worthi- 
est characters that ever passed through its dread 
portal. 

Fate! you never drew a harder lot than that you 
drew for Robert E. Lee. For he did not believe 
in Slavery at all; in fact, to him it was repulsive, 
and an institution antagonistic to the South 's ulti- 
mate political weal; yet you put him at its head 
in its last struggle with Freedom in this world! 
From this point of view, and detached from all senti- 
ment, Lee stands out to me like a vast fire-swept 

260 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 261 

temple, desolation staring out of its charred, flame- 
shattered windows. 

The speculation as to the temperamental and in- 
grained qualities of Lee may be wide of the mark; 
but I think not; for, as certainly as we live, when 
lofty pride and burning enthusiasm in human nature 
are struck, they, like sterling, will ring true. This, at 
least, we are sure of, that the one thing he dreaded, 
and was ready to lay down his life rather than sub- 
mit to, was a studied humiliation; and let us be 
thankful that a place has been provided in human 
breasts for that kind of pride, a pride which not 
only rebels at abasement but at what is almost 
as intolerable, patronizing, sniffing condescension, 
come from whomsoever, or how, it may. And while 
you and I, reader, may not even dream of putting 
ourselves in the company of the great, yet, in so 
far as we have that kind of pride and show it when 
we should, we claim, with uncovered heads in their 
presence, a common brotherhood. 

And now, before the narrative journeys on, one 
final word as to Lee. Had the war ended favorably 
for the South, he would inevitably have been called 
upon and forced to head its government, which, in 
the very nature of things, could not have enjoyed 
peace. For so long as slavery existed, it would have 
had implacable enemies, many within, millions 
without, and sooner or later, torn by internal dis- 
sensions, the Border States would, one after another. 



262 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

on account of commercial advantages, have deserted 
the Confederacy; and Lee's fame would probably 
have gone down in the general wreck. 

But, be this as it may, the failure of the Con- 
federacy to establish its independence broke the 
heartstrings of thousands of high-minded Southern- 
ers, and, for reasons already hinted at, I believe 
that its failure broke Lee's very heart itself, and 
the wonder is that death did not come sooner to 
him. 

Well, conversation between Longstreet and Lee 
as to Grant's prospective terms continued in broken 
sentences till Babcock was seen approaching, and 
then, as Lee still seemed apprehensive of humiliating 
demands, Longstreet suggested to him that, in 
such an event, he should break off the interview and 
tell Grant to do his worst. " The thought of an- 
other round " says Longstreet, " seemed to brace 
him, and he rode with Colonel Marshall to meet the 
Union commander." So closes Longstreet 's account 
of that unfolding incident. 

Lee directed Marshall to ride ahead and find a 
suitable house for the conference; he chose Mc- 
Lean's, the best in the town, a brick, with locusts 
and elms about it, and rose bushes blooming on the 
lawn. The old mansion, with a cool, inviting ve- 
randa, stood facing west, and was the first to the 
right on going into the village from the south. 

Marshall, having made his choice, sent his orderly 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 263 

back to notify Lee, and soon Lee, Marshall and 
Babcock were seated in the parlor, the left-hand 
room as you enter the hall. Meanwhile Traveller's 
humane groom removed the bridle-bit and the 
famous war horse began to nip the fresh springing 
grass in the dooryard, while Babeoek's orderly 
sat mounted out in the road, to notify Grant on his 
arrival. Ord, Sheridan, Custer, Griffin, Merritt, and 
their staffs, and among them my friends WoodhuU 
and Winne, were up the road only a few hundred 
yards away, and in full view. 

Grant, after dispatching Babcock with his note 
to Lee, mounted at once and followed the Walker's 
Church till he came to the Le Grand road. This 
he took to the left, and then struck down across 
Plain Run to the Lynchburg road. As he passed 
the left of the First New York Dragoons, some one 
shouted, " There comes General Grant." He rode 
directly to Sheridan's group, saying as he reined 
up, " How are you, Sheridan.'^ " 

"First-rate, thank you; how are you.^^" replied 
Sheridan, with an expressive smile, and then told 
Grant what had happened, and that he believed 
it was all a ruse on the part of the Confederates 
to get away. 

But Grant answered that he had no doubt of the 
good faith of Lee, and asked where he was. 

*' In that brick house," responded Sheridan, 
pointing to McLean's. 



264 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

" Well, then, we'll go over," said Grant, and asked 
them all to go along with him. 

Cincinnati, with his delicate ears, high and thor- 
ough-bred port, — he was sired by Lexington, King 
of the Turf, — led the way, and at his side was Rienzi, 
carrying Sheridan. For some reason or other, per- 
haps because as a boy I played with the colts on 
the old home farm, those horses, from the day I 
saw Grant on Cincinnati, and Sheridan on Rienzi 
in the Wilderness, have seemed like acquaintances 
to me; and now it pleases my fancy to put them 
with Traveller in a pasture, far, far beyond the 
reach of thundering guns or lamenting bugles 
sounding taps — a pasture that remains eternally 
green. 

As Grant mounted the steps and entered the 
hall, Babcock, who, through the window, had seen 
his approach, opened the door. Sheridan, Ord, and 
the other officers remained outside and took seats 
upon two benches, one on either side of the door 
and upon the steps of the veranda. 

Grant, about five feet eight inches tall, his square 
shoulders inclined to stoop, was without a sword, 
wore a soldier's dark-blue, unbuttoned, flannel 
blouse, displaying a waistcoat of like material, and 
ordinary top-boots with trousers inside. Boots and 
clothing were spattered with mud, and, in his 
memoirs, with his usual unstudied frankness, he 
says, " In my rough travelling suit, the uniform of 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 265 

a private, with the straps of a Heutenant-general 
[bullion-bordered rectangles, supporting on their 
ground of black velvet, one large and two smaller 
stars], I must have contrasted strangely with a man 
so handsomely dressed, six feet high, and of fault- 
less form. But this was not a matter that I thought 
of until afterwards." 

Never, let me say again, was a great man less 
self-conscious than Grant, yet, as I have observed 
elsewhere, he maintained his dignity day in and day 
out at the head of the Army of the Potomac, with- 
out charging the air of his headquarters with the 
usual pompous military fuss. This I know from 
experience, and although I was a mere boy, had he 
shown any affectations I believe I should have noticed 
them. 

The kind and cut of his beard, deep-brown in 
shade, the way his hair lay, and the outline of his 
face, are familiar; but his eyes, so charitably direct, 
his voice, so softly vibrant, veracious and sweet, 
must have been seen and heard to be duly appre- 
ciated. But under the depths of his quiet and art- 
less reserve, lay a persistent and intense doggedness 
of purpose, as prompt and unconquerable as Lee's 
pride and burning enthusiasm. And thus strangely 
balanced, stood Grant and Lee, types and creations 
of American society of their generation, facing each 
other. 

" Grant greeted Lee very civilly," says Marshall; 



266 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

and I have no doubt that he and his sublimely 
austere chief at once felt the charm of that gen- 
tle, autumnal composure which every crowned head 
of the world, who afterward met him, felt and re- 
marked upon. 

Lee said to Grant, with his customary urbanity, 
that he remembered him well in the old army; to 
which Grant, with his usual modesty, replied that 
he remembered him perfectly, but thought it un- 
likely that he had attracted Lee's attention suf- 
ficiently to be remembered after such a long in- 
terval. 

Lee soon found himself in a stream of pleasant 
reminiscence with Grant about the Mexican War; 
and it could not have been otherwise; for there was 
something so quietly companionable in Grant's 
manner that every one whom he met informally and 
socially always joined him in his unpremeditated 
talk. 

I think I can see Lee's brown, vigilant eyes, 
filled with the same marvelling, inquisitive wonder, 
that had filled Meade's and every ofl&cer's eyes, 
save Sherman's, who had known Grant in the old 
army and the reason why he had left it, on meeting 
him after he had won the laurels of Fort Donelson, 
Vicksburg and Chattanooga. And now he was 
undergoing the same searching scrutiny from Lee 
that he had had to undergo from others, but he stood 
before him, as he had stood before all, mild, unself- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 267 

conscious and unpretentious; and yet, about to 
receive from him the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia! Thank God, Obscurity cannot 
claim an unbroken realm! 

It was Lee who finally had to remind Grant of the 
object of their meeting and suggest that he put his 
terms in writing, — another proof of Grant's in- 
herent delicacy, which made him reluctant to broach 
a painful subject. 

Grant asked for his manifold order-book and, on 
receiving it, took a seat at the little centre-table and 
rapidly, with only a single momentary pause, wrote 
his terms. He says that when he put his pen to its 
task, he did not know the first word he should make 
use of in writing the terms. They were as follows: 

"Appomattox Ct. H., Va., April 9, 1865. 
" General R. E. Lee, 

" Commanding C. S. A. 
"General: In accordance with the substance of 
my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to re- 
ceive the surrender of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all 
the oflBcers and men to be made in duplicate, one 
copy to be given to an officer to be designated by 
me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers 
as you may designate. The officers to give their 
individual paroles not to take up arms against the 
Government of the United States until properly 



268 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

[exchanged], and each company or regimental com- 
mander to sign a like parole for the men of their 
commands. The arms, artillery, and public property 
to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the 
ofl&cers appointed by me to receive them. This 
will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor 
their private horses or baggage. This done, each 
oJ0&cer and man will be allowed to return to his home, 
not to be disturbed by the United States authorities 
so long as they observe their paroles, and the laws 
in force where they may reside. 

" Very respectfully, 
"U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General." 

When he came to the end of the sentence closing 
with " appointed by me to receive them," he raised 
his eyes from the page; they fell on Lee's lion- 
headed, stately sword, and then he continued, 
*' This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers 
nor their private horses." (Grant probably thought 
of Traveller, and the pang it would give him. Grant, 
to part with Cincinnati were he in Lee's place.) 

Grant's pen goes on to the end of the most pre- 
potent task it ever was put to; he rises, goes to Lee 
and hands him the open order-book. Remaining 
seated, Lee lays it on the table beside him and 
with deliberation takes his spectacles out of their 
case and adjusts them. Slowly and carefully he 
begins to read line after line. All eyes are on Lee. 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 269 

It is a brooding hour, a hush quiet as death pre- 
vails and Lo! a storm-beaten figure is at the door, 
haggard and in ravaged garments. It is easy to 
read in her face that it was once the playground of 
passion; it is easy to see the ashes of burned-out 
hopes in those blood-shot but once soaring eyes; 
and it is easy to see, too, where care and disappoint- 
ment have ploughed deeply her once rose-blooming 
cheeks. With lean hand and long, trembling finger, 
her eyes flashing the urgency of immediate com- 
pliance, she beckons imperatively across the room 
to Destiny. With his still and inevitably onward 
step he makes his way toward her. Clutching him 
close, she whispers in quick, feverish breath, " What 
paper is that he is reading .f* " 

'* Who are you.^ " Destiny asks, fixing his cold- 
gray eyes on her. 

Half-way resentfully and half-way proudly, she 
straightens up and exclaims, " I am the Southern 
Spirit that launched the Confederacy. It was I 
who made their capitals ring as state after state 
left the Union, who, four years ago almost to this 
very day, fired the first shot at Sumter, and it was 
I who beat the Long Roll at every cross-road and 
before every door of the Southland ! Awake, awake ! 
come back, come back, oh, drum-throbbing days! " 
But suddenly turning her eyes to Lee, and changing 
the tones of her voice, she asks, " What paper is 
that he is reading.? I am persuaded there must be 



270 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

something dire in it, for I hear the bell in my breast, 
here, sounding a knell." 

" Those are Grant's terms for the surrender of the 
Army of Northern Virginia," coldly answers Destiny. 

"Stop him! stop him!" implores the spirit 
wildly. 

Destiny shakes his head; she staggers backward, 
death rattling in her throat. But as she is about 
to fall, Charity puts her kindly arms around her and, 
then, stroking her pale, tired brow, leads her away. 
(Oh, what a life is ours! ) 

Barely have they cleared the door when another 
figure appears, gaunt, reeking of the lair, and in- 
veterate malice flaming in his hard, stony face. 
He needs no Plutonic herald to proclaim him Re- 
venge. But note that darkening frown on the noble 
countenance of broad-shouldered Magnanimity as 
he approaches the newcomer and asks in subdued 
tones, loaded with reproach, " What are you doing 
here.? " 

With a look of scornful hatred, " What does 
Grant mean," growls the figure, " by giving such 
terms to these damned rebels! " 

"Rebels, damned rebels!" exclaims Magna- 
nimity; "why, they are kith and kin! sons of 
Washington, Jefferson, Marshall, Madison, and 
Pinckney! Oh, you malignant, unforgiving crea- 
ture!" 

He seizes Revenge and flings him far; and great 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 271 

Nature approvingly allows his crunching bones 
to break her silence as he falls on the jagged clijffs 
of Hate. Courage and Manliness greet their 
brother proudly as he reenters the door, and Mercy, 
" the sweetest virtue ever ascribed to God or man," 
walks up to him and, lifting her smiling face, puts 
her hand in his. 

Lee kept on reading slowly and carefully, and 
when he came to the end he raised his eyes from 
the book, looked at Grant, and remarked, " This 
will have a very happy effect upon my army." 

Grant then said he would have the terms copied 
in ink, unless he had some suggestions to make. Lee 
replied, one only, — that the cavalry and artillery- 
men owned their own horses, and he would like 
to understand whether or not they would be allowed 
to retain them. Grant told him the terms as written 
would not allow this, but, as he thought this was 
about the last of the war, he would instruct the offi- 
cers in carrying them out to allow every one claiming 
to own a horse or a mule to take the animal to his 
home, so that they could put in a crop to tide them 
through the next winter, which he feared might be 
one of want and suffering, owing to the wide devas- 
tation. 

Lee is reported to have then said, " This will have 
the best possible effect upon the men. It will be 
very gratifying, and will do much toward concilia- 
ting our people." 



272 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

When on my visit to Appomattox last autumn, I 
had proof of Lee's prophecy from the Hps of one 
of Virginia's well-bred matrons, the wife of Colonel 
Abbitt, who commanded a regiment in Wise's 
brigade. During a call of respect to her and her 
mild-faced, battle-tried husband (we were on the 
porch; before us a long-stemmed red dahlia was 
in bloom, the shadows of venerable oaks mottled 
the sward, and the old plantation lay dreaming), 
she said, with gentle voice, " I never like to hear 
our people speak unkindly of Grant, for the armies 
had stripped us of everything we had in the way 
of food, and I think the supplies we got from the 
officers he left saved us from almost starving. No, 
I never like to hear any one abuse Grant." 

It is needless for me to point out the political 
significance of the last sentence, binding as it did 
the passions, and pledging the honor, of his country. 
In short, it meant that there should be no judicial 
bloodshed, no gibbets, and no mourning exiles. 
These terms, in the light of all that might have hap- 
pened after the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, which 
took place within five days of the surrender, lent 
elevation, repose, and dignity to humanity, and, 
I have no doubt, the eyes of the Country's guardian 
angel welled over them with tears of joy. 

The terms were put in writing by Colonel Parker 
of Grant's staff, a full-blooded Indian, a chief of the 
historic Six Nations, whose empire England, in the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 273 

early days, had recognized. Parker's stature was 
imposing — he was as tall as Lee, and heavier; 
his eyes were coal-black, and his face had the broad 
commanding features of his race. He carried the 
table which Grant had used to the opposite corner 
of the room, and Colonel Marshall, a gentleman 
through and through, let him have his small box- 
wood inkstand and pen. 

Wliile Parker was copying the terms, Ord, Sheri- 
dan, Rawlins, and others, were presented to Lee, but 
the only one whom he greeted with any cordiality was 
Seth Williams; to the others he bowed formally. 
When Williams, with his usual spontaneous spirit 
of comradeship, referred to something amusing 
that had happened during their service together at 
West Point, one as adjutant, the other as superin- 
tendent, Lee's only response was a slight inclination 
of the head. 

A paraphrase of what Grant says in his memoirs 
of Lee and his manner at this interview, may be 
pertinent: namely, that Lee was a man of much 
dignity, and with a face so impassive that Grant 
did not know the character of his feelings, and that, 
whatsoever they may have been, they were entirely 
concealed from observation. He goes on to say: 
" My own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on 
the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I 
felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the down- 
fall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly 



274 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

and had suffered so much for a cause, though that 
cause was, I believe, one of the worst, for which 
there was the least excuse. I do not question, how- 
ever, the sincerity of those who were opposed to us." 

The cause which Grant had in mind was ob- 
viously slavery, and Grant was right, but while 
slavery was the primal cause of the war, yet the 
people of the South did not lay down their lives in 
defense of the right to buy and sell human beings; 
and to charge them now with that offense, is to 
my mind doing them a wrong. No; Slavery, as 
property, or as a lawfully acknowledged institution, 
went up with the smoke of the first house that was 
burned, and the animating principle then, and to 
the end, was the defense of home and the rights 
of the States to govern themselves. 

While the terms were being copied, Lee told 
Grant that he had a number of prisoners whom he 
should be glad to release, as he had no provisions 
for them or his own men, who had been living for 
the last few days on parched corn and what they 
could gather along the route. Grant asked him to 
send the prisoners within his lines, and said that he 
would take steps at once to have Lee's army sup- 
plied, but was sorry to say that he was entirely 
without forage for the animals. On inquiring as to 
the number to be fed, Lee was unable to answer, 
and then Grant asked, " Suppose I send over twenty- 
five thousand rations, will that be enough .^^ " 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 275 

" More than enough," repKed Lee. 

Grant directed Morgan, his chief commissary, to 
see that Lee's army was fed. 

By this time the terms were copied, and, when they 
were signed, it was about half-past two or three 
o'clock. Lee shook hands with Grant, bowed to the 
other officers, and left the room. Colonel Paine of 
Ord's staff says: "As Lee came out of the room, 
and stopped for a moment in the doorway, those of 
us on the porch arose and complimented him with 
the usual salute to a superior officer. He seemed 
pleased at this mark of respect and, looking to the 
right and the left, raised his hat in recognition of the 
attention. As he drew on a pair of apparently new 
gloves, he stood so close to me that his initials, 
worked in white silk upon the guard of the gauntlet, 
were plainly observed." 

Having signalled for his horse, Lee stood on the 
lowest step of the veranda while the groom was 
rebridling Traveller, and from time to time, Lee's 
eyes swept the leaning fields blooming with the Stars 
and Stripes, colors he had helped to place trium- 
phantly on the walls of Chapultepec, and he smote 
his gauntleted hands together unconsciously. When 
Traveller was led up, he mounted him at once. 
Grant just then stepped down from the veranda 
and, as he passed Lee, touched his hat. Lee returned 
the salute and rode away. Marshall says that, if 
General Grant and the officers who were present at 



276 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

the McLean house had studied how not to offend, 
they could not have borne themselves with more 
good breeding. 

On Lee's departure, General Grant mounted Cin- 
cinnati, and, having ridden some distance, on being 
reminded that he had not notified the War Depart- 
ment, dismounted, called for pencil and paper, and 
briefly telegraphed Stanton, Secretary of War, that 
the Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered to 
him on terms proposed by himself. He then re- 
mounted and went to his headquarters, which 
meanwhile had been pitched on a knoll to the left 
of the road, toward Appomattox Station, a mile or 
so from the Court-House. 

When I visited the spot, on that misty morning 
already referred to, the ground about was covered 
almost knee-high with a stubble of tall, intermatted, 
coarse grass and weeds, chiefly asters with stunted 
white blossoms. Crawling here and there up to the 
mist-drenched tops of the weeds and grass were vines 
like morning-glories, with now and then on their 
wavering stems a single bell-shaped, pink flower. The 
field, a pretty large one, which has an oak wood across 
the road to the west, declines to the east, and in 
the rising field beyond, a pasture dotted with trees 
and colonies of young sassafras and persimmon, 
stood an old deserted tobacco-house veiled in the 
mist. Cattle, twenty or more, with bells of different 
tones, were grazing toward the south. 



XVI 

Almost as soon as Grant reached his headquarters, 
the trains carrying rations started on their humane 
mission, and with them went a hamper from Custer 
to his classmate " Gimlet " Lea, colonel of a North 
Carolina regiment, and its historian says that Lea 
invited some of his officers to join him at luncheon. 
By the time the order announcing the surrender 
was promulgated, the rations were being issued. It 
was then nearly four o'clock, and the official an- 
nouncement of the surrender was made. 

Joy overflowed every heart of the Army of the 
Potomac. Men threw their hats in the air and 
cheered themselves hoarse, bands played, and officers, 
young and old, embraced each other, not in exulta- 
tion over their foe, but because, at last, after four 
long years in defense of their country, the end had 
come — victory with healing on its wings. 

The official news reached Meade on Humphreys' 
front at five o'clock. Major Pease was the bearer 
of the happy tidings. Webb, Meade's chief of staff, 
at once led three cheers with swinging hat, and then 
three more for Meade, who of all men should have 

been present at the McLean house. He had been 

277 



278 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

unwell and, for a good share of the day, had lounged 
in an ambulance; but on receipt of the joyful news 
he mounted his horse and, preceded by a bugler 
sounding rejoicingly to clear the way, rode down 
through his men, whom he had led so long and so 
well; and Lyman, who was riding at his side, records 
that the color-bearers brought up their flags and 
waved them, and that the patient, silent old Army 
of the Potomac burst into a frenzy of excitement, 
rushing to the sides of the road and shouting till 
his very ears rang with the cheering. 

Pretty soon Wright, commanding the Sixth corps, 
which it will be remembered was with Humphreys 
beyond New Hope Church, ordered the heroic, 
brown-eyed Cowan, a man of noticeable presence 
and stature, whose ancestors brought him a child 
from the land of Wallace and Bruce, to fire a national 
salute. The guns began to roar, and Bernard of 
Petersburg, author of an interesting book entitled 
War Talks of Confederate Veterans, and who was on 
furlough, says that as he and his party, on their 
return, jogged along near Amherst Court-House, 
the sound of distant artillery from the direction 
of Appomattox Court-House reached their ears, 
" But there was an ominous regularity in the firing 
of the guns." The guns were Cowan's, and Grant, as 
soon as he heard them, sent orders forbidding salutes. 
Nature has her mysteries, and she has carefully 
hidden her final purposes from the ken of men, but 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 279 

in one respect she has been benignantly open and 
wise, — she has left the traits of the gentleman un- 
mistakable to us all. 

Lee, on riding back from the McLean house, 
established his headquarters for the afternoon by the 
roadside in the orchard, under one of whose trees 
he sat in the forenoon so troubled over the terms 
Grant would give him. Now there is only a tree or 
two left in the southeasterly sloping field. 

W. W. Blackford, in the appendix to Volume 
II of Memoirs of the War, a rare and valuable book, 
says that his command, the Engineer Brigade, under 
the refined and scholarly Tallcott, was resting near 
by in the orchard. Blackford records: 

" There were many details about the surrender 
demanding attention, one of which was securing 
rations for the army from General Grant's supplies, 
and officers were going and coming all day. General 
Lee's staff were bivouacked in the shade of an apple 
tree near the road, and there Colonel Taylor or 
Colonel Venable received all visitors. General Lee 
was under the shade of a tree a little farther back, 
where he paced backward and forward all day long, 
looking like a caged lion. General Lee usually 
wore a plain undress uniform and no arms, except 
holster-pistols; on this occasion, however, he had 
put on his full-dress uniform and sword and sash, 
and looked the embodiment of all that was grand 
and noble in man. We, the field officers of the First, 



280 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

occupied a tree near General Lee's staff. Colonel 
Tallcott had been a member of General Lee's staff 
up to the time he took command of our regiment, 
and consequently there was a good deal of social 
intercourse between regimental and army head- 
quarters, and during this day we were all much to- 
gether, so we were kept posted pretty fully about all 
that was going on. 

" General Lee seemed to be in one of his savage 
moods, and when these moods were on him it was 
safer to keep out of his way; so his staff kept to 
their tree, except when it was necessary to intro- 
duce the visitors. Quite a number came; they were 
mostly in groups of four or five, and some of high 
rank. It was evident that some came from curiosity 
or, as friends in the old army, to see General Lee. 
But the General shook hands with none of them. 
It was rather amusing to see the extreme deference 
shown him by them. When he would see Colonel 
Taylor coming with a party toward his tree, he 
would halt in his pacing and stand at ' attention ' 
and glare at them with a look which few men but he 
could assume. They would remove their hats en- 
tirely and stand bareheaded during the interview, 
while General Lee sometimes gave a scant touch 
to his hat in return and sometimes did not even do 
that." 

At first sight, there is something a bit discordant 
in this account with the popular conception of Lee; 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 281 

but to me it only makes the man more real and 
adds to my admiration for him. Does not out 
of the same mellow and blessed summer sky come 
the growling thunder and the speeding lightning? 
And what are we, if not human? Where is there 
any one, with a drop of red blood in his veins, who, 
with a cause so dear, and after leading an army like 
that of Northern Virginia so long, — we know how 
bravely, — could, in the face of what Lee had just 
gone through with, wear the look of a saint and 
curtain his natural feelings with a lace-work of 
hypocritical smiles, — and Cowan's guns booming ! 
— and above all, in the presence of the curious, who, 
next to the supercilious rich, are the most obnoxious 
of beings. No, unless a man be a cool, smooth, 
tricky sham he cannot suppress his feelings under 
an awful trial like that. And on the contrary, and 
in justification, God has set times for us all when 
anger's fires shall kindle quickly and blaze in every 
feature. I am surprised that any of General Lee's 
old friends should, at that hour, have sought to 
renew acquaintance; they should have known better. 
Late in the afternoon, when Gordon saw Lee 
mount Traveller to go back to his permanent head- 
quarters up on the timbered ridge at the foot of 
the majestic oak, he sent word for his men to give 
their loved commander a cheer as he passed, for he 
told them that Lee was feeling badly. Longstreet 
says : 



282 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

" From force of habit a burst of salutations 
greeted him, but quieted as suddenly as they rose. 
The road was packed by troops as he approached, 
the men with hats off, heads and hearts bowed down. 
As he passed they raised their heads and looked 
upon him with swimming eyes. Those who could 
jBnd voice said: ' Good-bye; ' those who could not 
speak, and were near, passed their hands gently over 
the sides of Traveller. He rode, with his hat off, 
and had sufficient control to fix his eyes on a line 
between the ears of Traveller and look neither to 
right nor left until he reached a lone, white oak tree, 
where he dismounted to make his headquarters 
and finally talked a little." 

Alexander says: " He [Lee] told the men that in 
making the surrender, he had made the best terms 
possible for them, and advised all to go to their 
homes, plant crops, repair the ravages of the war, 
and show themselves as good citizens as they had 
been good soldiers." And all who were present say 
that tears were in Lee's eyes. He then appointed 
Longstreet, Gordon, and Pendleton as commission- 
ers to meet Gibbon, Griffin, and Merritt, of our 
army, to formulate details for carrying out the 
terms of capitulation. 

Meanwhile Grant, according to Porter's most 
realistic account of what took place at the McLean 
house, seated himself in front of his tent, on reach- 
ing camp. No cheers greeted him as he rode thither 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 283 

(had it been McClellan the army would have gone 
wild and their voices would have shaken the skies 
over him). Well, Grant seated himself in front of 
his tent, and what do you suppose he talked about? 
The surrender, of course. No, he turned to Ingalls 
and inquired, — 

" Ingalls, do you remember that old white mule 
So-and-so used to ride when we were in the City 
of Mexico? " 

" Why, perfectly! " exclaimed the diplomatic In- 
galls, one of the best poker players of the old army, 
who, having to draw suddenly on his wits (it is 
barely possible that he had never even heard of 
the old mule before), filled his hand as usual. 

Ingalls was clever. I used to look at him with a 
boy's keen interest. A man of the world, true as 
steel to his friends, and a most efficient officer. 

Grant, until supper was ready, went on recalling 
the antics of the long-eared, nimble-footed patient 
beast of those far-back times; times and mule 
doubtless evoked by his interview with Lee. His 
unstudied naturalness and summer calm in this 
hour of victory, I could not believe possible, had 
I not seen him day after day on the field. 

After supper, to the surprise and disappointment 
of his staff, who were looking forward to witnessing 
the ceremonial of surrender. Grant announced that, 
on the following afternoon, he should start for 
Washington. He also expressed, with customary 



284 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

informality, his conviction that all the other Con- 
federate armies would now lay down their arms and 
that peace would soon prevail. And thus, without 
vainglory, before his camp-fire on that knoll, where 
now the asters and the bind-weed bloom, Grant 
ended the great day when the sun of the Confederacy 
set, one among the greatest days, I think, in the 
annals of our country. 

Meanwhile, night had fallen, and the camp-fires 
had been lit, but no moon or stars looked down 
softly on the field of the last act of the tragedy. 
For nature, as if in sympathy with the moods of the 
broken-hearted, had let fall a dark, responsive cur- 
tain, and the expanded heavens were black, draped 
as with a pall. 

And now, as the bivouacs of the armies come into 
view, they are, as you see in every field, on every 
slope and by every brook, their gleaming fires sur- 
rounded by figures of men, some upright, some 
prone, and many sitting with clasped knees; those 
in blue looking into the fires with home-going dreamy 
joy, those in gray with sad and moistened eye, and, 
as all this breaks on my vision, a sense of loneliness 
comes over me. I know that I ought to feel glad, 
glad that the North conquered, that democracy had 
won her triumph, and that peace had come; but 
for some reason or other, as the field of Appomattox 
lies before me with its two old armies, the pitchy 
darkness fretted with their lonely camp-fires, my 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 285 

heart beats low. Back come again those war days 
when, as a boy, I followed the flag; back come the 
nights of Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spottsyl- 
vania, and Cold Harbor; and the slender chords that 
nature has strung across the abysses of my weak 
heart are vibrating sadly. 

And listen! The bands are playing " Home, 
Sweet Home." 

Come, dear reader, let us withdraw, — the feel- 
ing is too tender; let us go beyond the reach of 
those pathetic notes, up to that oak-timbered ridge 
which rises steeply west of the Court-House, and 
there sit down till the bugles sound " taps." 

How the dry leaves scuffle under our feet as we 
disturb them in their quiet beds! But here we are; 
let us sit down on this fallen stub, once in the van- 
guard of the venerable trees, to greet the morning 
sun. No wind is astir; dogwood, oak, beech, ma- 
ple and gum about us, are holding their bloom- 
ing spring-time festival; for it is April. Deep is 
the silence of their infinite joy, and deep is the quiet 
of the night about us. The Appomattox, which 
rises at our feet, is murmuring the news it will tell 
to the sea, and a little frog, free from man's troubles, 
pipes child-like in the sedges. 

We can see nearly all of the camp-fires of the 
Army of the Potomac. There is Grant's; but we 
cannot see Lee's, for it is up in the woods at the 
foot of that large white oak. But we can see those 



286 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

of his men who are bivouacking in the gullied fields 
pitching gently down to the river. And how all of 
the fires glow through the darkness like lonely 
topazes ! The sight of them, with all they mean to 
those about them, will outlast many a memory; for 
each one of our intellectual faculties has its own 
special treasure room, and, thank God, when the 
winds of fortune blow too chill, the humblest 
farmer's boy can withdraw in his old age to the 
picture galleries of his youth! 

Night with her noiseless step has moved on. The 
fires are burning low, and only here and there can 
we see a man with clasped knees still looking into 
the failing blaze. Hark! the first bugle is sounding 
" taps," and let me tell you, reader, that if you 
have never heard it blown on the field, you will not 
realize the depth of its moving tones; that call, 
to be at its best, must be heard on the edge of a 
battle-field and in the presence of an enemy. Then 
the night-enveloped neighboring fields and woods, 
and the vaulted skies seem to lend each note some 
of their own subdued, sweetly-lamenting loneliness. 
One by one, camp after camp, battery after bat- 
tery, is sounding the call, and now the last one — 
oh, trumpeter, you nor any other will ever blow its 
like again — is dying away, dying over the field of 
Appomattox — its last note lingers as if reluctant 
to go, it is fading, it is gone. 

But before we leave this spot, let us not forget 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 287 

that it is a Sunday night, and that in many a country 
home, North and South, the little sleepy ones are 
assembled for evening prayer, and fathers, — or 
too often it is a pale, widowed mother, — on bended 
knees, with palm to palm, are thanking God for 
mercies, asking Him to watch over them during the 
night, imploring Him earnestly to bring peace once 
more to the land, and adding with low, trembling 
voice, a prayer that " He will protect and guard the 
absent soldier-boy." 

To-morrow they will hear that the war is over. 
Speed, speed on, glad tidings, to every door in the 
land ! Unworthy as we are, let us kneel and join in 
a silent prayer of thankfulness that the end of the 
strife has come and that no more homes, North or 
South, will hear the blighting news of a son who has 
died in a hospital or been killed in battle; but ere 
we rise, let us thank Him that the North had the 
courage to fight for their country, and ask Him to 
send His comforter to our enemies, the broken- 
hearted Confederates of the Army of Northern 
Virginia; and, I think, I can hear from mountain 
ranges and wave-breaking beaches a respondent, 
" Amen, and Amen." 

A peevish voice hails, — it sounds to me like 
that of a carping professor of literature : — "I 
thought we were to have an account of a famous 
military campaign and he has led us to a prayer- 
meeting! He does not seem to have the first idea 



288 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

of true narrative continuity!" Well, perhaps not; 
but continuity or no continuity, which would you 
rather follow, a canal, or some insignificant rivulet 
wandering from field to field, which, although with- 
out depth, yet for a moment now and then, besides 
its little actual world reflects cloud and star, and 
once in a while breaks into a low little gurgle of 
its own? 

The narrative might linger in the shadow of the 
four years of war that had been waged so bitterly 
by the two sleeping armies, sponsors now for all 
their absent, valiant dead, dwelling on what Ap- 
pomattox meant in the way of progressive national 
life. But what the contest meant between North 
and South historically and politically, that I shall 
leave to other pens, with this single suggestion only, 
that it is not in our country's stupendous growth and 
world-recognized power that the war finds its true 
measure. It has other terms than those of commerce 
and wealth. In short, it supplies to our countrymen 
what Grote says the Iliad did to the Greeks, " a 
grand and inexhaustible object of common sym- 
pathy, common faith, and common admiration." 

Sleep on, then, Army of the Potomac, and Army 
of Northern Virginia, and sleep well; your country- 
men's " common sympathy, common faith, and 
common admiration," will, through the powers of 
mind and heart, camp you together on a field higher 
than this. 



XVII 

The following morning, Monday, a rain began 
which lasted off and on for several days. Grant, 
with his staff, peace-loving Ord and Gibbon, set 
out, preceded by a white flag and bugler, to call on 
Lee. But on reaching the Confederate sentinels 
at the river, they halted him, having orders to 
allow no one to pass, and requested that he wait 
there till his presence could be made known to Lee. 
Grant and his party then turned in to the little 
knoll at the left of the road: a tablet marks the 
spot. As soon as Lee heard that Grant had been 
stopped on his way to pay him his respects, he 
mounted and came down from his camp at a gallop, 
and, as he rode up, lifted his hat. Grant lifted his 
and stepped Cincinnati forward; Lee wheeled Trav- 
eller to Grant's left, and the staff fell back into a 
semi-circle, out of hearing. 

There they talked for well-nigh an hour, and 
Grant says in his memoirs, that " Lee referred to 
the extent of the Southern country and that the 
armies of the North might have to march over it 
several times before the war entirely ended, but 
he hoped earnestly that that would not be necessary, 

289 



290 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

involving, as it would, further destruction of property 
and useless sacrifice of life." Grant, in view of this 
truth, suggested to him that if he, Lee, would say 
the word, so great was his influence, every Con- 
federate army would lay down its arms, and the 
suspended political life would soon resume its 
peaceful sway. To this Lee replied, with his usual 
reverence for authority, that he could not usurp 
executive functions without consulting Mr. Davis. 

Marshall says that Lee observed to Grant, in 
the course of his interview, that if he. Grant, had 
met Lee at Petersburg, or at any time later, they 
would have ended the war then and there. Marshall 
does not give Grant's reply, but it was doubtless 
that he had orders from the War Department 
not to assume to make terms of peace, which Lee 
as a soldier would have recognized as a complete 
answer. 

At the end of the interview, Lee requested that 
such explicit instructions be given to the com- 
missioners as to paroles and the carrying out of 
the details of the terms that there might be no 
misunderstandings. He then lifted his hat and said 
good-bye. 

He and Grant parted, and they never met again, 
but for a moment when Lee, with some friends, 
called to pay his formal respects to Grant as Presi- 
dent. 

The question as to who was the greater, Lee or 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 291 

Grant, is no longer an open one: the aristocracy 
of England and a great number of our own people 
have apparently decided irrevocably in favor of 
Lee, But, nevertheless, I cast my vote unhesitatingly 
for Grant, and on the substantial ground that he was 
intuitively great; and I can think of no foundation 
for greatness so unchallengable and so elemental 
as intuition. 

Grant after his interview with Lee rode back to the 
McLean house, and there met Longstreet, Wilcox 
(who had been his groomsman), Heth, Gordon, Pick- 
ett, and others, all of whom, except Gordon, were 
fellow West Point men. Longstreet says that, as 
he " was passing through the room. General Grant 
looked up, recognized me, rose, and with old-time 
cheerful greeting, gave me his hand, and after pass- 
ing a few remarks offered a cigar, which was grate- 
fully received." 

At noon Grant shook hands with all of the Con- 
federates, saying good-bye, and then started for 
Washington, bivouacking that night at Prospect 
Station. 

Meanwhile Meade, with his son George, Webb, 
and Colonel Theodore Lyman, had set out to see 
Grant, intending to pay his respects to his old friend 
Lee on the way. As Field, a large and handsome 
man, whose hair was very black and worn long, 
was in command where they entered the Confed- 
erate lines at New Hope Church, Meade went to 



292 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

his headquarters first. And here is what Lyman 
says in his diary : 

" He [Field] guided us to Lee's headquarters, in a 
small wood, and consisting only of a flag with a 
camp-fire before it. His baggage had perhaps been 
burnt the night before, along with much more; we 
saw many burnt wagons here and there. The rebel 
infantry was camped or rather bivouacked along 
the road, with their muskets stacked and the regi- 
mental colors planted. They appeared to have 
very little to eat and very few shelter tents. The 
number of men actually equipped seemed small, 
the bivouacs did not appear larger than those of a 
weak corps. Lee was away, but as we rode along 
we met him returning. He looked in a brown 
study, and gazed vacantly when Meade saluted 
him. But he recovered himself and said, — 

" ' What are you doing with all that gray in your 
beard .f^ ' 

" ' As to that, you have a great deal to do with 
it! ' said our general promptly. 

" Lee is a tall, strongly-made man, with a florid, 
but not fat, face. His thick hair and beard, now 
nearly white, are somewhat closely trimmed. His 
head is large and high, the eye dark, clear, and un- 
usually deep. His expression is not that of genius 
or dash, but of wisdom, coolness, and great deter- 
mination. His manners are courtly and reserved, 
now unusually so, of course. Though proud and 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 293 

manly to the last, lie seemed deeply dejected. 
Meade talked with him some time." 

Meade then went on to the McLean house, hoping 
to find Grant, but he had left. While there, and 
Lyman was talking to Gibbon, a voice behind him 
said: 

" How are you, Ted.^^ " 

It was " Roonie " Lee, the General's second son, 
W. H. F., who had been a college mate of Lyman 
at Harvard. I never saw this son of General Lee, 
but often heard his old army friends speak of him 
with warm affection. 

That night Lee sat before his camp-fire with 
Marshall, and told him to prepare a farewell order 
to the troops, which on the following day was read 
and was in these terms: 

" Headquarters, 

"Army of Northern Virginia, 

" April 10, 1865. 

" After four years of arduous service, marked by 

unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of 

Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to 

overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not 

tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, 

who have remained steadfast to the last, that I 

have consented to this result from no distrust of 

them, but, feeling that valor and devotion could 

accomplish nothing that could compensate for the 



294 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

loss that would have attended the continuation of 
the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless 
sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared 
them to their countrymen. 

" By the terms of the agreement, officers and men 
can return to their homes, and remain there until 
exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction 
that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faith- 
fully performed; and I earnestly pray that a merci- 
ful God will extend to you his blessing and protec- 
tion. 

" With an increasing admiration of your constancy 
and devotion to your country, and a grateful re- 
membrance of your kind and generous consideration 
of myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 

"R. E. Lee, General." 

A few hours before Lee left, on the following 
morning. Captain Colston, who has been mentioned 
before, went to see him to say good-bye, and asked 
him as a favor to write his name on the fly-leaf of a 
New Testament which he had carried through the 
war. Lee willingly complied, and the Testament, 
and the almost sacred autograph, are still in Colston's 
possession in Baltimore, and when death comes to 
the gallant captain, may all the sweet promises of 
the book be realized. 

Lee, about ten o'clock, accompanied by Marshall, 
Taylor, and Venable, rode off the field of Appo- 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 295 

mattox, off into the radiant field of glory; and I think 
the towering white oak followed him and his staff 
with tender interest till they disappeared behind 
the timbered ridges of wildness and beauty in 
Buckingham. And who knows that on many and 
many a night, as the stars shone down, and all the 
younger generations of oaks, pine, and gum were 
asleep, the venerable, majestic tree did not commune 
with itself, wondering how it was going with Lee? 



XVIII 

At an early hour on the following day, the 12th, 
General Chamberlain, of Maine, to whom the honor 
had been given of receiving the surrender of the 
arms and colors of Lee's forces, formed his line 
along the road from the Court-House to the river. 
I believe the selection of Chamberlain to rep- 
resent the Army of the Potomac was providential, 
in this, that he, in the way he discharged his duty, 
represented the spiritually-real of this world. And 
by this I mean the lofty conceptions of what in 
human conduct is manly and merciful, showing in 
daily life consideration for others, and on the battle- 
field, linking courage with magnanimity and sharing 
an honorable enemy's woes. 

The division he commanded was the first of the 
old Fifth corps, — Warren's : the unfortunate War- 
ren, to whom, however, with Chamberlain, has 
fallen the honor of saving Little Round Top and 
Gettysburg. And yet, mournful as the grave that 
Warren fills, yet to clouds, wandering winds, and 
the glimmering silence of the marching stars, that 
little wooded hill at Gettysburg repeats with exul- 
tation the story of its broken-hearted hero. 

296 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 297 

Well, Chamberlain led liis division to its post 
along the road to within a stone's throw of the 
Appomattox. On the right of his line stood the 
Thirty-second Massachusetts, sponsor for Lexing- 
ton and Bunker Hill, for Adams, Hancock, Franklin, 
and the old, unconquerable Puritan spirit. Puritan 
Spirit! Deep, deep is the blending in our country's 
life of the hopes and aspirations that have stirred 
the heart in all ages. Read the annals of New Eng- 
land, read the annals of Virginia, and it will be 
made known to you how the Spirit of Liberty 
made her home here with the Puritans, there with 
the Cavaliers, who fled from Old England for prac- 
tically the same reasons that drove the Puritans 
to New England and the Catholics to Maryland. 
Yes, there at those hospitable hearths she sat 
where slaves were treated almost as members of 
the same family, tears falling down black cheeks 
as well as white, when death struck either master 
or slave; there she sat, stirrer of big hearts, kin- 
dling Virginia's torch to light the way to the Decla- 
ration. 

Chamberlain's troops, facing west, and in single- 
rank formation, having gained their position, were 
brought to an " order arms." The Confederates, in 
plain view, then began to strike their few weather- 
worn scattered tents, seize their muskets, and for 
the last time fall into line. Pretty soon, along Cham- 
berlain's ranks, the word passed: " Here they com,e! " 



298 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

And as, in my mind's eye, I see them heading down 
that road, their colors dotting the gray column like 
tiger-lilies, my heart beats tenderly. I know how 
the color-bearers feel at the thought that they are 
to lay down their banners and part with them 
forever, banners which I saw so often floating 
defiantly. 

On they come, and Gordon is riding at the head 
of the column. On he leads the men who had 
stood with him and whose voices had more than 
once screamed like the voices of swooping eagles 
as victory showed her smile; but now he and all 
are dumb. They are gaining the right of Chamber- 
lain's line; now Gordon is abreast of it, his eyes 
are down and he is drinking the very lees, for he 
thinks that all those men in blue, standing within 
a few feet of him at " order arms," are gloating over 
the spectacle. Heavy lies his grief as on before the 
line he rides, and now he is almost opposite Chamber- 
lain, who sits there mounted, the Maltese cross, the 
badge of the Fifth corps, and the Stars and Stripes 
displayed behind him; lo! a bugle peals and in- 
stantly the whole Federal line from right to left 
comes to a " carry," the marching salute. 

Chamberlain has said: "Gordon catches the 
sound of shifting arms, looks up and, taking the 
meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and 
his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salu- 
tation as he drops the point of his sword to the 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 299 

boot-toe; then, facing to his own command, gives 
word for his successive brigades to pass us with the 
same position of the manual, — honor answering 
honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more, 
nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whis- 
per of vainglorying, nor motion of man standing 
again at the order; but an awed stillness rather, 
and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the 
dead!" 

Great, in the broad and high sense, was the cause 
battled for, and spontaneous and knightly was 
this act of Chamberlain's, lending a permanent 
glow to the close of the war like that of banded 
evening clouds at the end of an all-day beating rain. 
It came from the heart, and it went to the heart; 
and when " taps " shall sound for Chamberlain, 
I wish that I could be in hearing, hear Maine's 
granite coast with its green islands and moon- 
light-reflecting coves taking them up in succession 
from Portland to Eastport, and as the ocean's 
voice dies away, hear her vast wildernesses of 
hemlock, spruce, and pine repeating them with 
majestic pride for her beloved son. 

After passing, the Confederate brigades, one 
after another, came into line, dressed carefully 
to the right, and then the last command was given 
— " Stack arms." The guns were planted, the 
bayonets writhing in each other's grasp; equip- 
ments were taken off, and then the colors were laid 



300 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

lovingly on the stacks. The color-bearers cried as 
they turned away from them; and my eyes swim, 
too. 

Longstreet's men, the men of Chickamauga and 
Gettysburg, came last; and bringing up the rear 
was Pickett with the remnant of his division; and 
the banners which, I suspect, valor has planted on 
the peaks of History from Thermopylae down, waved 
as the old fellows marched by with their torn stand- 
ards. God's blessings on every one who wore the 
blue and the gray that day; in peace, sweet peace, 
I know, rest the dead. 

It was not mere chance that Chamberlain was 
selected, and that he called on the famous corps 
to salute their old intrepid enemy at this last solemn 
ceremonial. Chance, mere chance! No, for God, 
whenever men plough the fields of great deeds in 
this world, sows seed broadcast for the food of the 
creative powers of the mind. What glorified tender- 
ness that courtly act has added to the scene! How 
it, and the courage of both armies, Lee's character 
and tragic lot, Grant's magnanimity and Chamber- 
lain's chivalry, have lifted the historic event up to a 
lofty, hallowed summit for all people. I firmly be- 
lieve that Heaven ordained that the end of that 
epoch-making struggle should not be character- 
ized by the sapless, dreary commonplace; for 
with pity, through four long years, she had looked 
down on those high-minded, battling armies, and 



THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 301 

out of love for them both, saw to it that deeds of 
enduring color should flush the end. 

The ceremony of laying down arms took up the 
whole day, and all that night men in relays were 
printing the paroles for the Confederates on a 
shambling little field-press. On the following morn- 
ing, as fast as the paroles were distributed, the men 
set off for home. And with each departing step a 
deeper stillness comes over the field, and in corre- 
sponding mood the current of this narrative slows 
down; for, a few more lines, and its course is run. 

Major William A. Owen, adjutant of the Washing- 
ton Artillery of New Orleans, in his diary thus 
describes the scene. After receiving the paroles, he 
assembled his battalion and read Lee's farewell 
order to them. 

" The men listened with marked attention and 
with moistened eyes as the grand farewell from their 
old chief was read; and then, receiving their paroles, 
they every one shook my hand and bade me good- 
bye, and breaking up into parties of three or four, 
turned their faces homeward, some to Richmond, 
some to Lynchburg, and some to far-off, ruined 
Louisiana. 

" I watched them until the last man disappeared 
with a wave of his hand around a curve in the road, 
then mounted and rode away from Appomattox." 

With this last scene of the great tragedy — 
that Confederate cannoneer outlined against a 



302 THE SUNSET OF THE CONFEDERACY 

golden evening sky, and waving a long farewell — to 
soft and low falls the beat of my heart. Gone are 
the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia, 
the long white trains and the rumbling wheels, the 
dreaming colors and the thundering guns, gone to 
a field which the mind of man by the wings of 
imagination alone can reach. 



THE END. 



i /' 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 







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